Magnetic Island and Mission Beach - Koala and Skydive Galore

Magnetic Island

After Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays we headed to magnetic island for a couple of days. We decided to be good and get up at the crack of dawn so we would have more time on the island. Hower our good intentions didn't go quite to pan as our greyhound bus didn't arrive until 9am........3 hours late (apparently due to flash floods even though the news cited no such floods!). The 3 hour wait for the bus did however provide me and Rich with some entertainment as Jonny was having a mild spaz attack for the duration as he couldn't find his diary. We eventually arrived in Townsville where we had to wait another hour for a ferry , as it appeared we had arrived in peak over 60 cruise season! When all the biddies had been ferried to their cruise it was our turn!

Our hostel on Magnetic island was pretty cool as it it had its own wildlife sanctuary and we got our own 3 man bungalow/hut! We also got free internet and food...bonus!
Rich was pumped to see some wildlife so we headed to the sanctury where we got to hold some lizards, a snake, croc and an enachinda (looks like a flattened hedgehog), kiss a cockatoo and pat a koalo! The rest of the day we just chilled around the pool sweating our t*** off in the baking heat.

That was pretty much all we got up to on magnetic island, we probably should of explored the island a bit more, but it was nice to chill out for a couple of days...........time for MISSION BEACH!

Mission Beach

When we arrived in Mission beach we were greeted by a weird dutch man who rather worringly preferred looking at Jonny more than the road! Mission beach was one of the areas worst hit by the cyclone earlier in the year, so there isn't much to do their other than chill on the beach or skydive..........but who really wants much more!
We got an early night as our skydive was booked for 7.30am the next morning (although it very nearly didn't happen as Jonny had cancelled and rebooked it a number of times that day!). I don't think any of us got a good night sleep....I pretty much spent the whole night counting to 60 (the amount of time we would be freefalling when we left the plane), and thinking that it was way to long to be falling through the sky!

Anyway, morning finally came, I had a number of nervous toilet breaks then it was time to go! We had a quick briefing.........I mean the briefest briefing of all time. It basically consisted of being weighed (never good!) then being told to be a banana (as in get in a banana shape) when you fall out the plane at 14000 ft! Next we all got harnessed up with our tandem guys, had a quick pre-dive interview (some more rehearsed than others) then hopped on the bus for the tensest 20 minute bus drive of our lives. When we got to the airport we were boarded on to a tiny plane. When we got to 9000 feet the other 3 guys in the plane made a swift exit.......at this point Jonny looked like he was going to be sick, Rich looked a tad nervous (even if he was trying his best to hide it) and I was chatting rubbish to my guy in an attempt to try and distract myself from the prospect of potentially plummeting to my death.

We eventually reached 14000 ft and it was me to go first, I shunted up to the door of the plane, dangled over the side for a second and then we were gone! Weirdly I wansn't even scared during the jump.....probably because there wasn't time to be. It was amazing ....a bit like floating in a really really windy room. Next thing I knew it was parachute time, then you could really take in the amazing scenery, we had a perfect day and you could see the beach, the reef and the islands, my guy even tried to convince me we could see a turtle......but I think that was a bit ambitious (it was definately a rock)! He let me take control of the reins for a bit, then he wisely took them back for landing! Unlike Rich both me and Jonny landed on our bums! As I went first I got to see the boys land and they both had the biggest smiles on their faces....Jonny even did a little dance.........bless them!

For the rest of the day we were all smiles, we lay on the beach for a bit getting our burn on and watching more skydives come in, played a bit of aussie rules, went back to the hostel for some grub, then the boys stayed up late to watch football into the early hours...typical!