Hi all, Well, we arrived in Townsville from Cairns on 25th Jan. We took a short ferry ride over to Magnetic Island which sounded sooooo beautiful and peaceful we couldn't wait to spend a couple of days on the beach chilling out after our outback expedition. Well weren't we so wrong!! We arrived and it was peeing down, the first rain they had seen for 11 months! With the rain came every mosquito in the whole of Australia and decided to eat us all alive. In the space of one night Deb got about 25 bites and Ju about the same. It was awful! We met 2 girls, that were staying in our beach side hut, Jenny and Liza and they were the same. They got eaten alive. The next morning we all got up, did a quick guided tour of the Island so we could at least say we have seen it and took the ferry straight back to the mainland of Townsville and booked in the Sanctury floor of the hostel, bliss! Wednesday 26th was Australia Day (and the day Deb's cousin Vicki had a little baby boy!) Not much happening around the town. As this is a public holiday most places were shut so we just chilled out. Yesterday we went on a boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunatley Ju was very sea sick so didn't get to enjoy the underwater world but Deb did 2 dives. It was fantastic!!! Today we catch the bus again and are heading for Airlie Beach which is the Whitsunday Islands. There are 74 islands, 8 of which are resort islands and the rest are National Park so more updates to follow. LOL Deb & Ju xx