having finally managed to escape from Airlie Beach we were heading for Magnetic Island which is located just off Townsville. After getting through the flood waters (just about!) we arrived at the ferry terminal. The weather was looking a tad ropey and as Maggie Island is a place for r'n'r we thought that our rice relaxing trip would be a wash out!

It was early evening when we arrived at our hostel, having taken just 20 minutes to cross the water by ferry....we had the smelliest nastiest room I have ever come across...ok so it was on 18 bucks a night but it smelt like damp old lady wee and had 10 beds in the smallest space I have ever seen! Embrace the experience Tracy i thought to myself.....yeah right..... After getting some shopping from a tiny little supermarket we headed back to the hostel. It's in the process of being taken over so not many people were staying there, it's now called Magnums. All we did the first night was make dinner and then chill out for one drink, trying to prolong the time we were awake in order that we didnt have to return to the hell hole!

We survived the night there and you soon get used to the smell of the room. We woke up to the sunniest most gorgeous day ever, the scenery at Maggie island is amazing and we were sooo lucky to have good weather the whole time we were there. We had organised to rent a "Barbie Car" which was a little pink s*** heap of a convertible thing.... as I clambered into the drivers seat I was sooo excited that I was going to drive again...the car was horrible to drive but we all absolutely loved it...driving around the tiny island beeping at people as we were going along...classy....it was like having my Z3 back.....hmmm i think not! We drove to an amazing waterfall, some pretty coves etc and generally had a fab day. Our hostel had the most gorgeous pool and as there were hardly any people staying there we had it all to ourselves. We had to take our Barbie car back and we were sad to see it go but coming travelling you get used to saying goodbyes all the time! Once again on this chilled evening we went back to the hostel had dinner and chilled. Em and I went to a cove in the early evening when the sun was setting and it was so pretty.

The next day it was also very sunny so all we did was laze by the pool. We hadnt seen sunshine in Airlie Beach so it was great that we finally had some more sun. We are really getting in the tropics so it has been really rainy and we didnt know what sort of weather we were going to have when we continued up the coast. Maggie Island was a lovely place with stunning views but if the weather had been pants it would not have done it justice at all.

After an early ish bus we were on our way to Mission Beach....