TOWNSVILLE/MAGNETIC ISLAND

Townville is weird, if you've heard of Eirie Indiana then this is the Aussie version, when we arrive it is a complete ghost town with not a soul in sight, which is very strange as it is full of shops etc and is the admin centre that serves the whole of Queenstown. We stay here a day and head straight to Magnetic Island. We had a brilliant couple of days on Maggie - again we were very fortunate with the weather (it's the wet season up here) as it was gorgeous and sunny on the first and second day we were there - very very hot though.

Day 1 we did the forts walk in search of koalas in the wild.. didn't see any but took in some amazing views - plus on the walk back we saw 3 kangaroos!!! Day 2 we hired a 4 x 4 and explored the island - only it's not that big so it only took us a few hours! Odd little place as there was literally no-one around in quite a few of the places we stopped and it was Saturday afternoon on a gorgeous sunny day, the beaches should have been packed! Day 3 we visited the animal sanctuary and got to meet snakes, crocs, lizards and of course Koalas... we got to hold Barney but he turned out to be a feisty little b*****, he eventually bit one of the girls in our group and left claw marks in her arm - not quite the cuddly cutie we think they are... We do manage to see a Koala in the wild as well though which is pretty cool.

We returned to Townsville a little earlier than planned, as the weather wasn't beach weather so we decided to go to the Reef HQ aquarium in Townsville instead... this was really cool - especially the predator feeding time when we saw the sharks and other big bad fishes getting their dinner. Afterwards we set off in search of a few beers and some food - easier said than done in Ghostown Townsville on a Sunday teatime as there was NOTHING open! Totally strange as there is a large town centre with absolutely no-one in it and nowhere to go. We eventually found one place that was open and it was actually pretty good so we stopped there for a few hours before going back to collect our bags and get on the bus - again easier said than done in Townsville on a Sunday evening as when we got to the bus/ferry depot we find that it is closed and we have about 25 mins to find someone to open it so we can get our rucksacs out of our locker and catch the bus. An obliging ferry guy helps us and says the place just shuts when it wants, told you, weird. So no harm done and we catch the bus up to our last stop before Cairns, Mission Beach.