....Island hopping

The first of what will be many Greyhound bus rides down the east coast took Suzanna and I from Cairns to the ferry terminal in Townsville ready to head over to Magnetic Island for a little holiday. We did an overnighter and got there at 6am in the morning so had to hang around for a couple of hours for the first crossing, am getting very good at hanging around and killing time though, and always carry an arsenal of reading material, so this was no problemo.

"Maggie Island" (because absolutely every noun in the Australian vocablary has to be abbreviated down and have an 'ie' slapped on the end of it - this must be a law I think) is a gorgeous patch of tropical green just off the North Queensland coast with lots of pretty bays and beaches scattered around it, a small population of residents and large population of koalas and backpackers...

After the disappointing weather in the days prior we decided to use the island as a holiday and just hang out and beach bum (clearly I'm trying to justify complete laziness here - but travelling is exhausting! I promise! Have to take time out to recharge the batteries...)

Suzanna is heading back to Canada v soon and needs to work on the tan for the big welcome home at the airport so we were praying for sun for our five-day stay there. Well we didn't get it the first day - rain again! But we did on the following four so pretty good result. In fact the weather is now perfect, nice and warm and sunny during the day but not too hot or humid at all, it's super. Having to reach for the blankets/duvets at night now however which is rather strange after so long with a sheet at the most.

We were rather excited to be staying at Base, a small chain of hostels famed for its trendy image and modern and clean facilities. One of only three in Oz is based on Magnetic Island and is right on the beach looking out over the ocean, really great location and a party place ripe for the Oz Experience crew. It did look good from the outside and there was a nod towards trendy decor in the bar etc, but the dorms and communal facilities were so disappointing it was untrue - dirty and overcrowded and loads of things broken; we were a bit gutted that our hostel paradise turned out to be anything but.

However we stuck with it and our reward was loads of free drinks from one of the bar men who was a total alchie (god I'm doing it now). But enjoyed giving Suzanna and I shots and cocktails for nada every evening. Was rather bizarre getting ready to 'go out', only to walk across to the open air bar and sit with all the people you'd been squeezing by in the kitchen and bathroom hours earlier. But have to admit it was fun and we had a good laugh with the people we met there. (Still don't have any random drunken photos for the blog though - sorry! Although we did take some funny bikini shots on the beach because we thought we should while were still at an age when were brave enough to do so....)

Only problem with the beaches here however (and all of Queensland) is that the sea is full of stingers (jellyfish) so you can only swim where there are nets up or you can hire and wear a rather attractive stinger suit.... bit frustrating but there you go.

The best bit of the stay for me though was going horse riding which I'd saved to do here because some girls had told me they'd had a really good time at Bluey's Ranch. Had to be up very early to get the bus to Horseshoe Bay - how apt?! But it was worth it because I was the only person on my ride so me and the guide could have a good ride and gallop through the bush and the national park, even saw wallabies scampering around! Then we took the horses on the beach and unsaddled and took them in the sea (had my bikini on underneath at the ready). It was sooooo awesome, I loved it.

Suz came to meet me afterwards for a bit of a change of sunbathing beach and we treated ourselves to a nice lunch only to see the bar gang from Base at the pub next door downing shots at 2pm and trying to get us involved....

After five days of hanging out on Maggie, a rather speedy boat ride (because a woman's waters had just broken and she was heading for the hospital in Townsville) took us back to the mainland for me and my buddy's last night together (boo hoo!). So she is now on her way home I am venturing on south; first solo-stop Airlie Beach for the Whitsundays...

Airlie is absolutley lovely, real picture postcard stuff with boats dotting the bay - in fact where isn't picture postcard in Queensland? It's all beautiful... Stayed in a YHA here because I was ready for a decent hostel where you could actually use the kitchen without a) wanting to bash people out of the way, and b) not get food posioing. This place is very central and really good facilities so ticks all the boxes although no free cocktails in sight...

Most people do three day overnight trips around the Whitsundays but I decided to just do a day-trip because I'm spending loads in Oz and don't think it's necessary to do absolutley everything on the east coast just so you can tell other backpackers you did it. And I had a lovely day out sailing out around the islands, snorkelling off Hook Island and having a BBQ and swimming, sunbathing and walking on Whitehaven - which is just the most amazing beach, I thought the sand in Thailand was white but this place trumped even Ko Phi Phi....

Met lots of nice people on the boat so that was spirit raising after saying goodbye to Suz and also bumped into a gang I met on Magnetic Island so spent the next day hanging out with them by the lagoon waiting for my next night bus to head on to the teeny tiny town of Agnes Waters.....