Hello from Magnetic Island!

Hope everyone is doing well. All is fine our end, we're now in a place called Magnetic Island, just off of Townsville - heading down the coast. Had an awesome day in Kuranda (the rainforest) on Monday, though the day started pretty badly...

This whole bed bug problem has slown us down a bit and having convinced ourselves I had bed bug bites all over me, two chemists told me differently... sand flies!!! Bit of a shame having thrown so much stuff out (including all my shoes and sleeping bag) and spent the day washing absolutly everything we owned. So, anyway we didn't have bed bugs and I just continue to get bitten day and night by nearly everything. So, all was fine until Monday morning when I woke up to find REAL bed bugs sleeping with me...nice!! And what a coincidence!!! Told the hotel and we had everything washed once again and they freeze all bags to kill anything living in there. What a bummer and just my luck!! So, today my skin is now showing signs of bug bites, but thankfully we no longer have them as I'm waking up alone in my bed...!! Funny really but a little gross at the same time!!

Anyway, enough of that, i'm not that yuck - just a little off putting!! So, Kruanda on Monday was amazing, we got picked up and driven to the cable car which takes us over the massive rainforest for about an hour and a half, stopping to walk around pretty areas. Beautiful views. Once at the village, we went for a bit of a stroll and shop. Back to Cairns via an awesome scenic steam train which again was lovely. Found Cairns pretty expensive as to do anything, involved paying for a guided trip so we headed down the coast yesterday to find us here, in Magnetic Island. Lovely hostel, right on the beach front 'Base X'. We're about to go on a walk, hoping to see koala's in the trees!! Very nice indeed. Tomorrow we plan to head back to Townsville and then Friday to the Whitsunday Islands where we can hopefully get out on a boat trip, possibly to the Reef.

So, we're both well and loving it still very much. Put some new pics up for you to check out as and when. Have just under 4 weeks now until we have to be in Sydney for Carly's flight, which is just enough time to do everything we want, including a few little towns along the way.

So, once again, I hope you are all well and taking lots of care. Enjoy the cold weather, it's BOILING here!!!! hehehe.

Love you all very much, Claire Louise Wittcomb (BA). xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx