We had our first overnight bus from cairns to Townsville and I've gotta say it seriously exceeded our expectations. Okay, it was a brand new bus only 2 weeks old so it's proberly screwed us over now for future bus rides but it was pretty impressive, free strong wifi, USB charging devices, great clean toilet and drinking water and then super duper reclining leather seats. Now to be 100% honest I seats I found too hard and not worn in yet so a little uncomfy to sleep in but hey a much better bus than we imagined! Can't wait to see the worst!!
So we arrived in Townsville at 5.30am ready to catch the ferry at 6.30am to magnetic island. The ferry took only 20 minutes to arrive at our destination and looking through the tourism brochure it looked jam packed with things to do.
We spent the morning waiting to check in which wasn't a problem as we slept in a hammock each and swam in the pool right on the beach.
In actual fact, although the brochure looks packed, there's not a tremendous amount to do on the island. We considered renting a buggy type open top car which looks like something Barbie and Ken would drive but finding out there were buses every 30 mins and there's only 24km of road from one side to the other and back we thought we'd save our pennies.
We'd heard through a guy in cairns that there was a good koala sanctuary so headed there for the afternoon tour. The guide was super duper passionate about the place and mostly stressed to us that most if the dangerous animals in Australia only hurt humans because they are stupid! He explained that if animals see a bunch of prey they will pick the weakest animal in the bunch as they know they'll be the easiest. When we swim in a water we often thrash our arms and legs and look distressed to them so we give off the signal to them that we're easy prey. If we were still and swam gentle they proberly wouldn't be so inclined to attempt anything with us. Interesting thoughts!
We held a female salty crocodile, bigger than the one I held in oz last time, fed a bird from our mouth (see the pics), held a fluffy cute koala, had a weird looking lizard on our head and then came the finale. If you didn't know already, James is petrified of snakes! He really really doesn't like them. It stems back to when he was younger doing gardening and picked up some leaves etc and then was a snake amongst everything. We'd spoken to a guy on our darwin trip and he too was scared, but had conquered his fears by going to a zoo at home and having a massive snake put round his neck! He suggested James do the same as he felt after the first few minutes of panic it was okay.
So... time to hold a snake! I've gotta say James did really well, it was incredibly funny to watch as his facial expressions were simply the best but he did it! I took a video which I'll post to Facebook. Very funny, defo worth a watch!
I'd too never held a snake so felt I should try. I'm not as petrified as James. I can look at them in zoos etc but I've never had a desire to touch or hold one. And to be honest, now I've done it I still don't feel the desire to touch or hold one! It felt weird moving around my neck and I seriously wasn't keen on it coming close to my face. But I managed to do it with a smile on my face and am glad I did it!

The next day we walked to some of the bays you can't get to by car and stupidly walking around lunchtime struggled with the heat and the hills on the walking tracks. We walked for about 3 hours and saw 2 pretty secluded bays.
On our way back to the hostel we stopped at another bay where we hand fed rock wallabies. Pretty cute to see them cautiously coming over to us and them fighting with each other for our food.

So, other than a few activities, we've swam in the pool, swung in the hammock and chilled! We're met to blokes and a couple who have been great giving us tips for things to do and where to stay down the coast and met a couple who say they'll take us to a new food market in Brisbane that he helped to build. Easy 3 days! Next a 5 hour journey to Airlie beach for our Whitsunday boat trip the next day. Go go go!