Snorkpacking Our Way Across Magical Magnetic Island

Grab your bike for this tropical adventure but don’t forget to pack your snorkel and fins! Join Explorer Sarah and her friends for a bikepacking trip around Yunbenun/Magnetic Island complete with a foray into the underwater depths.

We Are Explorers acknowledges that this adventure is located on the traditional Country of the Wulgurukaba people who have occupied and cared for the lands, waters, and their inhabitants for thousands of years. We pay our respects to them as the Traditional Custodians and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.

Bikepacking is an incredibly adaptable adventure hobby. It’s easy to modify bikepacking adventures to suit your fitness level or pace, but also to include other adventure flavours and create epic hybrid adventure styles: bikepacking + water rafting = bikerafting. Bikepacking + surfing = surfpacking. Bikepacking + skiing = skiipacking.

Then of course, there’s snorkpacking. I was first introduced to the concept of snorkpacking by my friend Kia as the new bikepacking spinoff I didn’t know I needed. Keen to give it a go, I rounded up some friends for a tropical adventure on Yunbenun/Magnetic Island in North Queensland.

Read more: 8 Ways to Minimise Your Impact While Snorkelling and Diving

What is snorkpacking?

As the name suggests, snorkpacking is bikepacking but with a snorkel included and a route aimed towards your favourite underwater world in search of new fishy friends – in our case, Alma Bay on Yunbenun/Magnetic Island.

It’s a relatively cheap and easy addition to your bikepacking rig, requiring a mask and snorkel, fins (optional), a wetsuit, rashie or stinger suit (season dependent), towel, and sunscreen (make sure it’s reef safe).

For this trip, I strapped my fins to the back of my pannier rack, fastened the snorkel to my front bag, and packed my microfibre towel, rashie, and sunscreen into a pannier. If you’re located somewhere that isn’t a sleepy small island in North Queensland, I advise bringing along a bike lock for peace of mind!

We’re pioneering #snorkpackingcore and #snorkpackaesthetic

Setting Sail

Yunbenun/Magnetic Island, lovingly referred to as Maggie by the locals, is located 8km offshore from Townsville. The mountainous island has a distinct local geology and striking environment and offers a variety of riding surfaces and topographies.

The ferry ride over is incredibly convenient, with services running every hour or so and setting you back a cool $38 return.

Slip, slop, slap break

The Snorkpacking Route

Wheeling off the ferry and onto the island automatically set our watches to island time.

Our noble steeds raring to get off the ferry

Shared roads (quiet even during peak season) and dedicated pedestrian paths allow us to cycle between three of the four hamlets on Maggie.

Our ride starts at Nelly Bay Ferry Terminal where we make our way towards Picnic Bay along roads that weave between rounded pink granite boulders and beneath towering Hoop pines. From Picnic Bay we head towards West Point, through open eucalypt woodland populated by native Kapok trees, distinguished by their large, bright yellow flowers.

The leg out to West Point is along a flat, gravel road through a tunnel of tea tree and pandanus that provide a welcome stretch of shade.

Enjoying shade being thrown at us for once

The road crosses several small creeks that run briefly following seasonal rains before terminating at West Point, the smallest of the settlements on Maggie. We have a brief picnic lunch in the shade of a casuarina (no snorkelling here – crocodiles!) before retracing our pedals to Nelly Bay.

The section from Nelly Bay to Arcadia is perhaps the easiest part of the route – riding up a gentle slope before rounding the eastern coast of the island and descending into Geoffrey Bay. Further along past Arcadia Pub is Alma Bay, our snorkel destination.

Follow our route: Ride With GPS

Diving into Alma Bay

At this point, we’re all keen for a cold drink and a refreshing ocean swim. Thankfully, Alma Bay is located across the road from a bottle shop and the pub does a pretty decent fish and chips.

The snorkelling in Alma Bay is (arguably) some of the best on the island – the bay is flanked by broad granitic headlands that are fringed by easily accessible coral reefs and bommies. Diving under the gentle waves we spy larger-than-life Coral trout, schools of shimmering Diamond fish, stealthy rays, and Alma Bay’s resident green sea turtle Shelley.

We emerge from our swim and perch ourselves on a boulder lit by the late afternoon sun.

In paradise

Our salty skin sparkles in the light, as we watch the tiny lives playing out around us, from the dancing Parrotfish below to the nesting Brahminy, kites above.

We get a wriggle on after checking the ferry timetable and pedal back to the terminal just in time to catch the outgoing ferry. Back on the mainland, we dilly-dally home in the oncoming dusk, sun-kissed and blissed out after a perfect day of snorkpacking.

Read more: Snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef Off of Townsville Blew All My Expectations

FAQs About Snorkpacking

What snorkelling gear do you need to bring with you?

The most bare-bones snorkelling kit consists of a mask, snorkel, and fins. Depending on the snork spot, you might also want to take on a wetsuit, booties, hood, gloves, dive belt and weights, and your choice of anti-fog. Regardless of what you bring, definitely pack a reef-safe sunscreen!

How do you store your snorkelling gear on your bike?

For the fun part! Trying to Tetris it all in with your other bikepacking stuff. You may need to purchase a basket or more bikepacking bags to fit all your gear in, or strategically strap it to different parts of your bike!

Read more: A Beginners Guide to Bikepacking Bags