Townsville and Magnetic Island

After Airlie Beach, we jumped on the Greyhound to Townsville (Oct 24) which is the stepping off point to Magnetic Island. The island hadn't been on our to-do list but we'd heard tons about it so decided to check it out. Townsville was a pretty ordinary town, we stayed at the gitchy Reef Lodge (all the bedspreads were tacky fish patterns and the walls were painted with old school fish murals :) and Dev couldn't stand the guy at reception, older guy with a long ponytail who took his job way too seriously :) We checked out the Reef Museum and Aquarium where we took a tour of the sea turtle hospital and played in the children's area :), made dinner then took our computer to McDonald's (all McDonald's have free wi-fi here!) and got ice cream cones :) We never plan on buying anything from McDee's when we go to use the internet, but it's impossible not too! so they're pretty smart :) The next day we woke up early to take the ferry over to Magnetic Island where we had a reservation at the Koala Lodge!

Heavier than it looks!

The hostel was super cool, the dorms where all in self-contained A-frame cabins which we shared with four other people. The place had a great outdoor bar and pool with tons of hammocks (Dev's #1 criteria for a good hostel :)) We couldn't check in straight away so we threw on our bathing suits and headed to the nearest beach which in this case was Horseshoe Bay. Apparantly the beaches on the island don't have many jellyfish so we could swim as much as we wanted which was awesome :) After chilling then checking into the room, we caught the 2:30pm Koala Santuary tour (located on the hostel grounds). We turned out to be one of our favourite things yet, it was a two-hour tour of all the resident animals by a crazy Australian ranger who managed to incorporate a life lesson into each of the animal talks. :) We learned that our parents teach us to ignore our instincts (somehow related to how all other animals instinctively know how to swim except humans) and that humans should learn to be happy with what they have (somehow related to how animals would stay unrestrained in captivity if provdided with all their essentials) :)

Looking in the Face of Death :)

First we got to hold a black cockatoo which ate seasame seeds out of our lips then some iguanas and other weird lizards. He took us to the white cockatoo (which talks and live 100 years) which only lets girls pet it (actually chased a guy out of the pen) and then to hold a baby crocodile (pure muscle!) :) We also took pictures with a python although the craziest part was the koalas (one apparently has a facebook page although the guide says he doesn't twitter because he has a life :)) because the guide decided during the tour that the female was ready to be mated so put her in the male pen for some you know what!! To finish this crazy tour off, he led us to a spot where there are about 1,000 of these colourful parrot-like birds and put wet bread in all our hands so that they would land all over us!! Dev loved it but I freaked out a little when they started landing on my head!! :) Great pics though! :) Dev kept telling me to lie on the ground and put bread on my stomach, yeah right! :) They would have landed all over my face and I didn't see him doing it! :)



So Cool



No So Cool



That evening we did a two hour hike to the top of the island where the old forts are that the Australians used as sectret lookouts for the Japanese in WWII. Later that night we played drinking games at the hostel and Dev and I were the Kanga Bangers and we won the games by a landslide ($30 at the bar!). Games included me racing to carry cotton balls from one side to another with vaseline on my nose and Dev bowling a strike using a piece of 2x4 swinging between his legs. :) Like we've done it every day of our lives :)

Dev at Picnic Bay Jetty

The next day we had hired a scooter for the day which was so much fun. A lot of the roads are right on the water and are super windy so you feel like you're on a car commercial :) Dev did all the driving, I was on the back taking pictures :) The island only takes about half an hour to cross so we went to loads of beaches and did a few of the walks. We went to Picnic Bay and walked up to the lookout where we could see Rocky Bay and Nelly Bay. Then we went swimming at a great quiet beach called Alma Bay, supposedly the island favourite. Finally, we did an hour hike (practically all uphill!) :) to Balding Bay which was by far our favourite and only partly because of the nudists who like to hang out there! :) jk It was a tiny seculeded beach surrounded by rock cliffs with super shallow and warm water. We spent as much time as possible then had to hike back to return our scooter (we definitely wanted to keep it :))

Dev At Balding Bay

We decided to extend one more night because we were having so much fun so the next day we checked out another beach but went back to our favourite for the rest of the day, definitely the best beach of the trip so far! Later on, hanging in the hammocks by the pool we ran into Kat from Noosa and two of her friends so we grabbed our goon (cheap box of wine) and had a bbq on the beach. They have free bbq areas everywhere and we'd always wanted to use them! :) Back to Townsville the next morning where we were soooo tired from all the hiking and swimming that we rented a DVD player and watched loads of movies back at the Reef Lodge. We had made a few calls to working hostels and finally had something set up work for Monday (Nov 1) so relaxed getting ready for banana farms on Monday!!!

Meg At Nelly Bay Lookout