20/9/9 Sunday Airlie Beach to Magnetic Island

We were picked up by a new driver, Sonic, who looked very like Neil Morrisey. we left Airlie, drove through Bowen and stopped at a dodgy cafe for breakfast. we drove into Townsville but had only got 5 minutes before the ferry left so to avoid rushing we decided to get some tickets and catch the next one in an hours time. to kill the time we had a drive round Townsville and went to the supermarket for snacks. Townsville was lovely with a really well developed sea front, usual free barbecues, parks and water play areas. We went to board the ferry accross to Magnetic island for the short crossing. We caught the local bus to Base backpackers and upgraded from dorm accomodation into a double room. It was meant to be all romantic with ocean views but was really a wooden shed with a bed !!! We did have loads of space and an ocean view though. We had planned to get a hire car to explore the island and ended up sharing it with Colin and Sarah two of the other passengers we had travelled up the coast with. We had the afternoon to usde the car as well as the next day so we decided to go for a drive to one end of the island if we had time before sunset. our little barbie car struggled to reach 60 KPH and hardly made it u the islands slopes but we soon realised that the island was tiny and it only took about 10 minutes to reach the other end. We drove to Picnic bay then crossed to the other end of the island to Horseshoe Bay then onto George island where the map mentioned wallabies. When we pulled up an old boy was sitting with a group of children feeding loads of little rock wallabies. We stayed and watched them for a while before heading back to the hostel bar for sunset. We had an all you can eat Barbecue for dinner and had a few drinks in the bar overlooking the sea...lovely. We spotted jonny and Tony from our Fraser island trip and they joined us for a drink of two beofre bed.

21/9/9 Magnetic island Monday

We all met up at about 10 to spend the day exploring the island a bit more. We started the day driving to Forts walk near Radical Bay, We screeched to a stop in our little speed machine and walked along a really hot path upwards to several gun placements and a lookout post at the top of the island. They were used in the WW2 to defend against Japanese invasion. It was really cool in the lookout post so we stopped and took in the views across the bays below to cool off. We then walked back down the path and were lucky enough to see a koala bear in the tree just off the path. We drove on to Horseshoe Bay and had fish and chip lunch on the sea front then drove round to picnic bay where the tide was in . We all sat, liz fell asleep, for a while before we drove back across the island to Koala village resort. There we had a guided tour round a small wildlife park. First our guide showed us the rescued turtle. Then we saw a black and a white cockatoo which we all held and fed a seed from between our lips. Next we saw and held a small crocodile whose mouth was taped closed thankfully . We met one of the koala bears called Barney who a few people had paid to hold. (There is a conservation fee applied to koalas) Phil couldn't resist and once he had hold of him he looked like a kid in a candy store...he loved it !!! Hes a big softy really !!! We were shown and handled two lizards, a blue tongued one and a dragon, then fed two Echidnas. We all had a hold of a huge python....theres a great photo of Liz with the best expression on her face!! The ranger got us all in close to see a huge hairy spider in his hand then threw it at us. We all screamed and ran from the plastic spider!!! The ranger took us through a nearby forest where there were hundreds of butterflies everywhere...really beautiful. There were fruit bats in the trees too all flying around. The final stop was to feed the orakeets. The guide got the food out and we were literally bombarded from above . They swarmed all round us and landed up our arms and on our heads!! We also got pooed on quite alot. It was hilarious to be covered in the flighty little birds squarking away like mad !! After a great day in our little car we went for dinner at our hostel, went on the internet to write the blog then went to bed.