February 1st - 6th Magnetic Island / Townsville

*i'm updating this at 11.30pm so I apologise for the poor spelling/grammar etc...i really can't be arsed to go back through and check it all.....which goes for most of the blog*

February 1st

Off to Townsville today. We were on the greyound by 9am, in Townsville by 2pm and on a ferry on our way to Magnetic Island by 3.30pm - who said travelling was hard?!

Thanks to the magic of Wikipedia I can now answer that question you are all asking yourselves - why is it called magentic Island? Well, "The name of the island came about because of the apparent "magnetic" effect it had on the ship's compass of Captain Cook as he passed the island when sailing up the east coast of Australia in 1770.[2] People have since explored the general area of Magnetic Island with various instruments to discover what might have caused the effect that Cook reported, but nothing has been discovered."

Within minutes of arriving at out hostel, a really cool place called Bunglow Bay Koala Village, we'd seen dozens of baby frogs, loads of parrots (Larrikins), Wallabies and more insects than you could skae a stick at. A haven for wildlife indeed.

We were back camping it up again (i've just had a vision of 'Pauline' mincing around the campiste!) and had the tent up in no time. Paul later managed to drop his sunglasses (about the 10th pair) in a toxic looking brown lake infested with lots of crabs and so we looked like a right pair at the side of the road with him holding on to me, arms stretched trying to retrive said sunglasses with a stick.

That night was possum-tastic. Never seen one before but as we were cooking we saw loooads. They are obviosuly now used to humans and scavaging for leftovers, which meant that the little b*****s weren't shy and started to climb on the tables and in the kitchen bins. Not very hygenic when you are eating (they look like bigger but cuter versions of rats) but it made for some great photo opportunities.

February 2nd

We had plans to do a walk in the morning at a bay on the other side of the island, however when we got over there the path was closed off due to rock falls.Instead we went to the supermarket to get food for the next few days then headed back to the resort.We met the French guys again who were ataying at the same place as us. We just spent the rest of the day lazing by the pool and reading/sleeping in the hammocks as was just so damm hot and muggy - 34 degrees. We literally melted!

February 3rd

We had great ambitions of doing many of the walks on the island but realised that the heat made it nigh on impossible. However, we did manage to do the 'Forts Walk' today which started from our hostel and followed a track to the top of an old WWII lookout with spectacular views out over the whole island. I've never sweated so much and Laura struggled too but we did stupidly time it so we were up at the top in the midday sun.

As we were walking back to the hostel and old guy pulled in and asked us if we wanted a lift - testement to how nice the locals were.He was driving a 'mini moke' - http://www.totaltravel.com.au/guide/photos/townsville/tqld_magnetic%20island_moke.jpg. Awesome things, in hindsight we should have hired one for the day to see the island but our budget was tight.

We'd booked onto a tour of a local wildlife reserve in the afternoon (attached to the hostel), primarily so that Laura could get to hold a Koala. Best money we've spent, the guide was so informative and you could tell she really loved her job. The majoirty of the animals were born into captivity but we were told that it is actually illegal to realise 'captive' animals back into the wild. We ended up seeeing and holding turtles, parrots, lizards, dragons, koalas, snakes and crocs - I think some of the better pictures are up on facebook. After the tour finished we headed over to see the parrots being fed. they all congregate in this one tree on the hostel site and make the most god awful racket but when bread is thrown down on the ground they all jsut come flocking. Hundreds of them. I had a fair few of them lined up on my arm, one on my head and some feeding out of my hand. Laura on the other hand stood there screeching as they landed on her (in fairness their claws were really sharp), amusing one also s*%t her back!!

Met up with the frenchies again that evening for a Pub Quiz and formed team "frog rose beef"…....long story, can't be bothered to go into detail on this one.Anyway, we did pretty well and ended up finishing joint first, winning 3 free jugs of beer along the way.Unfortunately it would have been about 6 free jugs however the people who beat us in the tie breaker cheated!

February 4th

A day of chilling by the pool was followed by an evening at the toad races at a nearby bay - yep we were just as intrigued as you are which is why we went along.There were quite a lot of people who turned up and we were all sat in a circle around the 'racing ring'. We eventually gathered that the way it worked was that each toad (about 6 in all) was all auctioned off to the highest bidder (after the compare guy showing everyone their 'form').The first toad to get outside of the outer circle then won meaning that he won an average of the total betting fund!It was , urrmm, something different, the compare was a bit of a character and there was some good banter between people buying the toads.

February 5th

Groundhog Day (great film by the way!!)...the morning was spent in the pool and napping in the hammocks again. Took the bus over to a place called Arcadia in the afternoon and walked to Endeavour Falls before heading back to a beautiful little beach called Alma Bay. Even at 5pm in the evening the sea was still really warm - perfect for swimming.

We then wandered off to feed the rock wallabies. We'd heard you could feed them and so popped into the newsagents to buy 'wallaby food' - we looked like wallies buying it mind (couldnt resist!). It was realy cool, as soon as we got to the end of the jetty we could see a few of them in the holes in the rocks. They were a bit hesitant to come out at first but when one or two had ventured closer more and more of them came out of hiding. At one stage we had them eating out of our hands (literally I mean, we weren't standing there performing for them or anything) but as more joined the pack it seemed to create a bit of rivalry and suddenly a few of them starting jumping all over the place and squaring off - survival of the fittest and all!There was even a mummy wallaby with a baby in her pouch.

However, as we were right on the waters edge, we could see a storm coming in from over the sea, and all of a sudden it started pouring down. We had to peg it back to the bus stop praying that the tent wasn't leaking (it didnt btw)!.

February 6th

The rain had stopped by morning and it was scorching again.We were up and packed and on the ferry back Townsville by the afternoon. Townsville is one of those sleepy port towns that everyone stays in for one night before heading elsewhere. As a consequence there wasn't much to do apart for roaming the streets in the vain hope that I could find a pub that would be watching the Wales Vs England six nations match (at 2.30am in the morning). Rather alarmingly, most of the pubs stayed open until 5am and so my plan was to eat, have a scheeky little sleep and head to the bar to watch the rugby till 5am, however it didn't quite turn out like that.When the alarm went off at 2, it was quickly bashed off for another 30 minutes.At 2:30am it went off again and this time I was ready for it.Laura decided she wasn't so up for it anymore and went back to sleep.I got changed and ran over the road, now wide awake, only to be told they weren't going to be showing it anymore.Less than happy I tried the bar just down from that which was met with the same response.That meant only one thing, finding enough change for the vending machine for wifi cards and sitting in bed reading updates on the bbc sport website.In the end it probably wasn't worth it as we lost!!