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Published: October 13th 2007
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CUDDLY KOALA!
finally got the token oz pix - me holding a koala! I spent the better part of my last afternoon on Magnetic Island at the Koala Sanctuary as I had heard that this was a great opportunity to get to hold a koala (for a fairly pretty penny of course) and to get my photo taken with a cuddly koala among other native Australian animals - python, birds, lizards, baby croc, etc. If you actually want to see koalas in the wild while in Australia, your best bet is to hike along one of the many hiking paths on Magnetic Island - I however did not see any but I didn't do a great deal of hiking either. Magnetic Island was great - I'm very glad I stayed there for 3 nights. The hostel was right on the beach; public transport on the island was very convenient; and there was a supermarket fairly close by which is always handy when you are cooking your own meals (I often do this, nothing fancy though let me tell you!). One thing I noticed pretty quickly about the supermarkets here is how expensive it is to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. 1 apple is always over AU $1. Bananas are even worse (even though there
PYTHON & me
only held this creeper to get a pix...eeekkk are banana farms everywhere in oz). High banana prices per kilo are attributed to the devastating cyclone that wiped out a lot of the banana crops coupled with the high wages that workers at banana farms make. Not that I eat a lot of chocolate but even chocolate bars are usually AU $2 each which is double what we'd pay at home... I guess where you're on an island/continent that's far away from everywhere else in the world it seems, things are going to be expensive, period.
From Magnetic Island, I took the ferry back to Townsville where I caught the Greyhound bus directly to Airlie Beach - known as the backpacker party capital of Australia. Airlie Beach was essentially a main strip filled with tourist shops, travel agencies trying to sell sailing trips, hostels, and eateries.... all overpriced. Airlie Beach is the gateway to the famous Whitsunday Islands though and this is why I came to Airlie. I booked a 2 day 2 night sailing excursion aboard the catamaran sailboat - 'Wings'. I had a real nice time on the boat, lots of special memories were made, but the trip didn't entirely live up to my expectations (which
were quite high I'll admit). Firstly, the passengers were so-so... people just weren't super friendly and were all pretty quiet - there were some nice people that I hit it off with though luckily. Actually a girl named Kim S from Kelowna, BC (funny, hun) that I met on the Greyhound ended up on my boat which was great. The weather wasn't the greatest but it didn't rain so I really can't complain. It was however quite overcast at times and as a result I didn't get to see the postcard perfect hues of the great barrier reef like I had imagined - of course everything was still exceptionally beautiful. The A/C on the boat was broken before we even stepped on board the boat. During the day this wasn't an issue, at night however, what an inconvenience!!! Our room was so hot and humid I could barely sleep a wink.
The crew were great, the food was fresh and abundant, but best of all, the scuba diving (at an additional cost of course) and the snorkeling (included) was unbelieveable. The dive instructors were great and I did 2 dives. I was down 12 meters at the deepest points and was submerged for 30 minutes for both dives. I absolutely love the feeling of being able to breathe underwater and be face to face with the corals and the fish deep down. I've now gone scuba diving 3 times in Australia and I feel so comfortable with it and almost like a pro - haha I'm sure I have a lot to learn yet! I actually saw the neatest and most rare things by fluke while snorkeling. I saw 2 huge sea turtles on two seperate occasions - the 2nd turtle, myself and about 5 others swam with for about 5 minutes, following him from up at the surface, it was incredible watching how graceful these creatures are.... on my last snorkle of the trip, guess what I saw - a leopard shark - he was huge (well I thought so!). I was actually not real close to anyone else and by the time I called to the others that there was a shark, he was long gone, I'm the only one who saw it - I guess I was lucky???
On the last day at sea, the swells were HUGE, I felt ill the entire way back to the harbour... in fact today, 1 day after being off the boat, I still felt myself swaying and feeling like I was on the boat.
I'm now in the town 1770 - apparently the only town in the world to be named after a year. Has to do with when Captain Cook landed in Australia. I took the night bus from Airlie Beach last evening... it picked us up at 11:50pm and dropped us in 1770 around 10am - long ride! Luckily Beccy and I were on the same bus - we keep bumping into eachother which is so great!!! We get on super well. I can already tell that 1770 is wonderful, there are so many great activities to do at some of the lowest prices along the east coast (because it's not as touristy as the other places prices are lower to attract tourists). Tomorrow Beccy and I are doing a tour where we're to see heaps of wild Kangaroos - I'll let you know how that goes! I plan on spending at least 3 nights here but possibly more if I really love it. That's the beauty of being on my own, I just do whatever I want! 😊 No one to please but myself.
Well tonite I'm looking forward to a good night sleep... spent last night on the bus and the two previous nights on the boat so needless to say, I'll be sleeping in tomorrow!
On a bad note, my ipod shuffle decided to stop working today... one minute it was working, one minute it woudn't turn on. I'm very angry with Apple, this is my second ipod product to go bust on me!! I don't know what I'll do without my music for the next 2 months... not good! As always, thanks for reading!! 😊
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