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Published: August 21st 2007
We are almost at the end of our time in australia :-( & have loads to catch up on again here!
After Airlie Beach, we went to Townsville from which we went to Magnetic Island. We were only in Townsville for one night, so I thought it would be a good place to spend my birthday money, but wasn't to be, as literally every shop in Townsville was closed on a saturday afternoon! Turned into a complete non-event after that, we didn't have anything to do so we wandered round aimlessly for a while before heading back to the dorm to play cards all night!
We went to Magnetic Island the following day, and it is the nicest place we have visited in Australia, if not on the whiole trip. We were there for 2 nights, and the weather was absolutely perfect so it looked like paradise with the beaches fringed by palm trees and the mountains in the background. After dumping our stuff at the hostel, we set out straight away on a long rainforest walk in search of koalas which are prolific on the island apparently. It was hot work, and in out typical style on this holiday we ended up going the wrong way! We eventually made our way onto the right track before we gave up in the heat, and lucky we did as we were eventually rewarded with the most spectacular view we have had on this holiday! We followed the track for a couple of hours to the point where it jopined the Forts walk, which was where soldiers were stationed in WW2. At the top of this walk, there is the command centre and signal post and you have views all over the island and all the way along the coast of mainland australia. All thoughts of koalas were totally forgotten when we were looking at this view as it really was very beautiful. Our luck was in though, and we bumped into this Irish guy who had spotted a koala and took us to where he was asleep in the tree - he was really cute and low down too so we got some good pics! We made our way back down to the road (looking out for death adders which apparently inhabit the area), saw an echidna on the way, and decided we were energetic enough to walk the final 2kms to Horseshoe Bay where we sat and watched the sunset over the water - it was a totally perfect day.
After Magnetic Island we went to Mission Beach for 3 days. This was one of the low points in Australia, as it is a series of hamlets which are all separated by about 5kms each, so we were pretty much stuck in the middle of nowhere as it was too far to walk to any of the other places that made up Mission Beach. The hostel did not provide us with any info really, except for the fact that they could book tours, so we did not find out until the evening on our second day that there were buses between the different places! The weather was pretty bad when we were there as well, it was overcast all the time, and poured with rain on our last day, so whereas we could have just lazed on the beach if the weather was good and then might really have enjoyed it, as the weather was bad the isolation of the place felt oppressive and we were left pretty much twiddling our thumbs for 3 days.
We are in Cairns now, and a combination of lethargy after 3months on the road, and an ever dwindling budget has meant that we have not done all we had originally planned here - good excuse for a return visit though! We did go up to Cape Tribulation for an overnight trip though. We had to get up stupidly early to join the tour, which started off with a visit to Mossman Gorge. We had the option to go swimming in it, but apparently it is freezing cold and it was raining anyway, so we opted for a walk through the rainforest instead. It was nice to do, and had some nice lookouts over the river but was a bit rushed as we had 30 mins to cover 2.4kms.
The highlight of the day was the cruise along the daintree river croc spotting! We were quite nervous about it, as we were looking for salties which can grow up to 6 metres, and we were on this crappy little boat that they could easily have jumped to the roof of if they thought food was there! We saw 4 crocs in total, some of which were basking on the banks of the river and they really do look mean! At one point some guys cap flew off into the water, and the guide went back for it. We had learned from Australia zoo that you should never go in crocodaile infested waters, so we were all scared when the guide reached over to get it back in case he got snapped up by a giant croc, but all was well! We also saw an amythest python and a tree snake as well. We got taken to our accomodation in the heart of the rainforest, and that is when the heavens opened! It rained incredibly heavily from about 4 in the afternoon until sometime in the middle of the night, so we were pretty much stuck in the hostel and were worried that it would be the same the next day and we wouldnt be able to go anywhere! Luckily we remembered the maori sun dance (which resembles the hokey kokey), and the next day the sun came out and we embarked on a super long walk along the beach and into the rainforest.
Cape Tribulation is really lovely, and is possible as beautiful as magnetic island. It has really lovely beaches, unlike the rest of Queensland where the beaches have been quite gravelly, so we really enjoyed walking along the beach. There was but one problem. We set out early and walked along the beach, and along the way we had to cross several small creeks running into the sea. These were NOT deep, so we jumped over most of them, and walked through the largest which was shin height. We left the beach to join on to a walk that went through the rainforest along boardwalks, and it was not far into this walk that we spotted a snake, a real live wild snake slithering along in some water just off the path! Of course all our good sense about leaving snakes alone deserted us and we spent ages there trying to get the perfect photo of him, until he got annoyed and struck us both down dead! only joking, he did start hissing and slithering towards us, at which point Adrienne got scared and we ran away! We did not see any more interesting wildlife on our walk, though we were being v Cass-o-wary as it has been rammed down our throats in queensland how "potentially unpredictable and dangerous" these birds are. No sightings though, and the only other wildlife we saw were some giinormous green ants that tried to get our lunch. We walked down as far as Myall Creek in search of some crocs, but to no avail, and so we turned and walked back along the beach. It was shortly after this that we reached the previously shin deep creek that we had to cross to get back. The creek had clearly expanded since the last time we saw it, and venturing to the top of the beach we got some nice snaps of the two rivers that combined to create this creek, which was now carrying all of the water from the previous night. Aswell as this we spotted a nice little sign informing us that "A crocodile has recently been spotted in this area" So it was with fear for our lives that we embarkes on the treacherous journey back across the now thigh deep creek. We decided the best course of action was to copy the three others who were crossing it, and cross in the ocean - we decided we preferred the risk of box jellyfish to crocs any day! but that said if a croc had seen us enter the water, and fancied an easy meal, we were esay pickings and they do swim in the sea occasionally! Throughout the day the river had erroded its banks and widened, was now carrying more water and had a larger force, and thus had eroded the mouth of the river, so we had to walk out into the sea and around. (paul is practising for teaching science, hence the explanation!) Paul kept falling into the water, and we were both totally soaked through, but we made it to the other side to tell the tale!
We are now back in Cairns and have spent the day in the tropical zoo to say farewell to all the cool australian wildlife to which we have grown so accustomed in the last 7 weeks! Was no Australia Zoo, but they did have millions os crocs and some really big ones to, one of which was eyeing up Adrienne for food as she was taking a photo of its huge jaws! As she moved away he moved with her! We tried to hand feed the kangaroos again, but they werent interested at all in the crap that the zoo gave us to feed them, (Paul suggests they feed kangaroos this rubbish as any step up could be classed as a better value meal than that of the zoo cafe) so we gave up on that pretty quickly! Adrienne held a koala again and had her pic taken beside a wombat, and we both held a croc! We also saw some cassowaries, one of which was chasing us as we walked around the enclosure - they are really mean! It was protecting eggs though, so i guess it was probs more aggressive than normal, but am still glad we didnt come across one in the wild!
But the most photographed creature in the zoo by far was ........... Paul!!!! Little did Adrienne know she had spent the last three months travelling with none other than... Harry Potter!! A huge groupo of chinese children (think they were on some kind of school trip to australia) had gathered to get there photo taken with a koala, and started screaming, going nuts and taking photos of Paul as they genuinely thought he was Harry Potter! It was hilarious! Adrienne was standing in the koala queue with them whilst paul waited by the side, and all you could hear was random excited muttering in Chinese followed by "Harry Potter!" What started with one girl clearly needing glasses spread through the whole queue of chinese people, who were getting more and more excited by the minute! Paul had to run away and hide in the koala house, but was followed by a fan who stuck her head round the corner and ran away yelling to her friends! They were actually hiding behind a tree and sneaking round to take photos of him! Eventually one brave girl approached him and asked for a photo, and Paul was soon surrounded by at least a dozen girls with their cameras, whilst he was holding Adriennes handbag!!! Of course Pauls continually saying "I'm not harry potter" didn't help, as the only words they understood were Harry and Potter! We are expecting more of the same in China, so will hopefully be able to use Pauls new found celebrity to our advantage and get loads of free stuff lol!
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HP etc
I like names. wonder how long it took to dream up the name "Townsville" for a place! Maybe it should have been prefixed by "onehorse". There has just been an Aussie from Queensland interviewed on Bamburgh beach by the Tyne Tees equivalent of "Look North". He did reckon the sands were better at Bamburgh but wasnt overchuffed with the November weather. Can you find the chinese for "Yes, I really am Harry Potter" . Could be useful on the next part of your trip!