Magnetic Island

Officially this island is part of Townsville... Only a 20 minute ferry ride away, but a must see island! We arrive about 10.30 and catch the bus to our guest house. A nice little place which even has a bath! Sarah loves it!! Once sorted we do our usual exploration and go for a wander. The island has a number of bays and beaches with some walking trails. We decide to check out Alma bay, lovely but no stinger nets although there is a lifeguard on duty! We then try to walk to the trails but the heat is too much for this so we double back to a nice place for a drink and wait for the bus to take us to the beach at Horseshoe Bat where there is a stinger net! The bus service goes from east to west along the south side of the island probably covering 10 km. The rest of the island is national park and only accessible by some walking tracks. We decide after our first day at one end of the island that the next day we'll get a day pass bus ticket and hop on and off at different points. So the first place we aim for is the 'Koala Bungalow' which is an opportunity to cuddle a koala as well as hold some other animals. This wildlife experience lasted 2 hours, we held a croc and Sarah played the pirate with a parrot on her shoulder (unfortunately he nipped her finger..ouch!) We held a turtle also but decided against the lizards and snake!!! The koala was of course the highlight... So cute and cuddly!!! We grabbed a spot of lunch and hopped on the bus, again decide it is too hot for a walking trail so head to the opposite side of the island to Picnic Bay a different beach with a stinger net, this was ok but not as nice as the other and the wind was a little fierce here so we hustled ourselves off the sand to enjoy the sun and observe the most beautiful birds in the trees. See photos!!! We treated this as a little holiday on an amazing island so ended it with a few drinks and dinner at the local bar! The next day we were catching a 3pm ferry so needed to store our luggage and just kill a few hours... We find a cafe around the corner and have some breakfast.... We discover they had wifi so spend the next few hours planning our route and booking accommodation and bus down to our already booked pad in Bondi / Sydney, this would mean we wouldn't have to worry about it for the rest of our adventure!