Some websites will tell you that the second and last Sunday of each month is when the markets are on at Horseshoe Bay. Others will tell you that EVERY Sunday is market day at Horseshoe Bay. The first group is fortunately wrong!
After a very lazy morning, we trundled down to the bus stop to wait for our ride. We looked at the Morton Bay fig trees. We looked at the gentle waves hitting the beach. We looked at the gym equipment spread out along the foreshore for senior citizens to work their mind and their muscles. And then a realisation hit me, and I exclaimed to Eva: “Oh shit! We’re on the wrong side of the road, these buses are going to Nelly Bay!” This was a poorly timed observation, I thought to myself, as I saw the bus to Horseshoe Bay ride past the bus stop on the other side of the road. “Quick!” I ejaculated, “there’s another bus coming!”
Maggie is a sleepy island, and there wasn’t any traffic so we were able to cross and get on the bus with no trouble.
The markets at Horseshoe Bay are rather small. Perhaps we had been spoiled last year by the Eumundi Markets in Noosa, but the offerings at Horseshoe Bay were rather limited. A few jewellery stores, some bag sellers, some rather paltry clothes stores and a few places offering massages and various forms of unscientific claptrap*. As the information assistant at the ferry terminal had informed us earlier in the week: You don’t come to Magnetic Island to shop!
There were also two food stalls. One selling Danish pastries and the other selling satays, spring rolls and other Asian street food snacks. We split up and I had some chicken satays while Eva indulged her sweet tooth with some pastries.
We walked through the market, and along the street looking at the restaurants and few shops, then walked along the beach and the market again. Finally we grabbed some cold drinks from the cafe near the bus stop (called Adele’s, but there was no evidence of her involvement) while we waited for the bus.
On the bus, we decided to make one last attempt at something that had eluded us for the whole trip. When in the taxi to the airport on Day 1, I suddenly remembered the one important item I’d forgotten to pack: my sandals. Ever since then we had been on the lookout for a pair. We looked in shops at the airport. We tried most of the surf shops on the island. We tried the Vinnies, we tried the supermarket, we tried the market. With no success. You don’t come to Magnetic Island to shop. However the shop assistant at one of the surf shops we tried had mentioned an “outdoor adventure hire” shop in Nelly Bay that MIGHT have them. So we figured we’d give them a go.
The reason we hadn’t known about this shop is that it’s not on any main street, it’s not in a shopping strip, it’s on a little back road in a residential area. Next to a vet. So after walking a fair way from the bus stop, we walked into this glorified fishing equipment store cum automotive goods store and perused away. Up the back of the store we found a very large collection of thongs** so we figured we were in the right area. Next to the thongs were a few tubs of ‘reef shoes’ – also known as rockpooling shoes or, according to at least one website, “shoes that can get wet”. Essentially, rubber socks.
Forlorn and exasperated, I decided to buy a pair. We have plans to hit some beaches with rock pools (the island is all rocks, girt by water) and they were only $25, and there is clearly no chance at all of getting any sandals.
We caught the bus back to our AirBNB, had some down time, then walked down the road to Baked On Maggie. Which, as we discovered on our first night, is not always open until 10pm like they claim.
BOM, as they also call themselves, is a cute little restaurant with a fairly extensive menu. Although dinner main courses were mostly various flavours of chicken parmas (on the menu under the grammatically eye-watering heading “Parmys”) and various flavours of burger. There were some other options, though – Eva had a lasagna, for example. I had a chicken parma with pineapple, because it sounded nice. And it was. It was very good. It was served with chips, and the only animal that stole any was Eva.
Footnotes
* Reiki, homeopathy, auras and chakras, and my favourite: the guy with the sign saying “I have a crystal for that”.
** The foot kind.