Sunday 27th - Tuesday 29th January - Magnetic Island
In true Sarah and Charlie style we got up at 7am in the morning to catch the bus to Magnetic with only a few hours sleep following the Aussie Day celebrations last night! Got the ferry across from Townsville and then the bus to our YHA 'Hostel' in Magnetic. Well.. the 'hostel' was amazing!! A wildlife sanctuary with luxurious pool and surroundings! Sarah was in her element surrounded by the wildlife which included colourful birds and interesting insects which she keeps on pointing out to Charlie when in the bathroom! We were not alone while brushing our teeth!! This was enough to give Charlie nightmares but she managed to cope (just!). The relaxed surroundings in Magnetic made it very difficult for us to move from our hammocks, it has been noted from our friends Johhny and Ed that the first day we arrived there, we didn't move an inch until gone 8pm! They were considering to bring our duvets outside for us to make us even more comfortable but we decided to move at that point as it was pitch black and the insects were surrounding us in the dark! The hostel rooms were little huts surrounded by trees, wallabys, possums and birds. We were here for 3 nights which was more than enough time as we started to feel a little bit lethargic after a while. We went out for dinner one of the nights into the main town and the restaurant and bars were shutting at 8pm! So if anyone is planning a trip here, we would recommended a 3 night stay max. We went to the beach where our friend from the Oz bus, Alex, joined us with her friends and also went to the Koala sanctuary where we had an interesting time holding baby crocs, birds, snakes and koalas! As Sarah is all at one with nature she really enjoyed this but as you can tell, Charlie wasn't so amused when holding the Python (one of her phobias!) - see pics! You can see the tension in the smile! Our tour guide, Tony was excellent and gave us alot of interesting information on the animals.

Wednesday 30th Jan - Mission Beach
Stayed in the Treehouse YHA at Mission. All very pleasant but not alot to do at the hostel or surround. We were very bored here and 1 night was plenty!

Thursday 31st - Monday 4th Jan - Cairns
Staying at the YHA (surprise surprise!), which is very nice, clean and has everything we need here. Went out with our friend Alex for a few drinks and met her friend Neil from Ireland and also some other travellers (James, Dave, Kerry, Sophie but others!). We had a great night dancing on tables at the Woolshed :)
The weather here is a bit 'touch and go', one minute it is blazing hot 35 degrees and within seconds, hard rain. We are definately in the wet tropics here! We have managed to do some day trips which include Cape Tribulation and a flight over the Great Barrier Reef. There are lots of pubs and clubs in Cairns and is definately a 'nightlife' type of place so we feel quite at home. The day trip to Cape Tribulation was with Billie Tea Tours, our tour guide was Chris and we were in a 4 x 4 truck equipped to get us through the rainforest! Firstly we went onto the Daintree River and saw a crocodile protecting her nest, she was on the bank and a little difficult to see but we just about got a pic! Cruising up the river, we learnt all about the Mango trees and saw a green frog and some bats (well quite a few there were loads of them!). We went into the rainforest and saw some enormous spiders and a tree snake, the noise was deafening from all the insects but it was an amazing experience. We had a barbeque lunch of steak which was second to none and then drinks and a dip in the afternoon at a beautiful (croc free!) water spot. Went to the beach where the Reef meets the Rainforest. We would recommended Billie Tea tours to anyone wanting to visit Cape Trib on a day trip - you get to see everything you need with helpful tour guides!
Our flight over the Reef was INCREDIBLE!! We went up in the tiniest plane ever! it seated 3 of us plus the pilot. Our new friend Karrie came with us (we met her yesterday on the Cape Trib trip) and we flew over the Reef for 45 minutes.