Horses in the Tropics

I forgot to title my last update - it should have read "Goodbye Cairns".

 

The next day we traveled to Magnetic Island Marina. I will sing the praises of the wonderful day. This is "happiness stuff" for power boats heading against the normal flow. The wind was a light breeze, the water was flat with barely a ripple, the sun shone brightly and it was warm. We had the pleasure of watching a couple of humpback whales stage a performance of breeching and slapping the water with their flippers. Although the show was for their purposes of catching food, we like to think it was for us. I whine that we should be diving not traveling and although Glen has the same sentiments, we both know that tomorrow is not going to be a nice day on the water and we certainly don't want to be stuck out, exposed on the reef.

 

Magnetic Island is a familiar place now as we have been here before. We arrive with enough time to give the boats a splash to dilute the salt then head out for dinner at a Mexican?? Restaurant. The highlight of the meal is the resident possums, dozens of them, that the restaurant owner feeds with taco chips and carrot slices. They are quite entertaining.

 

The weather man was correct! We woke Wednesday morning to lots of wind and big waves, even inside the marina. So it is nice to be tucked in. I decided it was time for a "horse fix" and joined Ann and Bear for the two hour Bush and Beach ride in the appropriately named, Horseshoe Bay. We hopped the island bus right at the marina gate and jumped off at the ranch gates - efficient. The horses were all respectable riding horses, with peppy attitudes and not too many vices. My steed's name was Kitaboy.  Five riders (on horses of course) set off behind the trail guide (she on horseback also) along a track that meandered through open paddocks, where the wallabies all stood up to watched us ride by and heavily vegetated areas, where numerous bird types flitted on the branches overhead. It has been quite a while since I have been in a saddle and it took the better part of half an hour for me to get limbered up (age? Or out of shape?) Good thing it was a two hour ride. The track opened up onto the beach at Horseshoe Bay and our horses faithfully followed the fellow in front, each stepping into the footprints made before him. My horse skipped a beat every once in a while as he tried to keep his toes from getting wet, silly horse, because he knows very well what is coming up… At a predetermined stopping spot, everybody dismounts, the saddles are stripped from the horses, we strip down to our "swimmers" and we all go for a swim - on horseback! A very cool experience. Kitaboy made groaning sounds for the whole water trip, pretending to be a motor boat, I'm thinking. Once we finished a great big loop in the water, we all tack up again and head back to the ranch. They allowed for trots and canters all along, which is unusual for tourist trail rides and I'm very happy for that. It was a very fun afternoon.