Magnetic Island - with Barbie & Barney!

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We got the first ferry to Magnetic Island at 6.10am on Wednesday morning & when we got there we had to sit & wait until 8.30am to sort out accommodation & for the buses to start running. We got the bus up to the north of the island to Horseshoe Bay & stayed in a place called Bungalow Bay with lots of little wooden huts, attached to a Koala Sanctuary. When we arrived we had to wait for the hut to be cleaned so we got changed & headed straight to the beach to get bronzed, we came back & had an afternoon nap as we were exhausted after the overnight journey which we didn't get to sleep on much as we got kicked off at about 3.30am for the bus to refuel.

We got up & went food shopping & on the way back we got to feed some Rainbow Parakeets, there were literally hundreds of them in the trees & when the lady gave me some food in my hand they landed all over me, it was just bread mixed with water but they loved it! We had dinner, showered & had an early night, I had the best nights sleep in a long time & it was much needed, catching up on late nights in Cairns!

On Thursday we had cereal & coffee, (started a mini detox off junk food & alcohol), then headed to the beach to relax, sunbathe, listen to our ipods & read our books, heaven! We came back at about 3pm as it seemed to go cloudy in the afternoons so we had to make the most of the morning sunshine! We relaxed by the pool & went on the internet.

On Friday we got up & got a bus pass for the day to see more of the island, we headed to Picnic Bay where we sunbathed for a bit before getting the bus to Nelly Bay about 2.30 for more sunbathing! We got another bus at 4.00 to Arcadia Beach & walked along Alma & Geoffrey Bay beaches; it was a lovely day seeing the other beaches on the island. Whilst we were sat outside under the stars eating our tea we saw the possums again that regularly hung around the kitchens trying to get some food.

On Saturday morning after breakfast I booked flights for Andy & I to get from Sydney to Melbourne & then at 12pm we got collected to go around the Koala Sanctuary. We had an amazing afternoon, as there was only about twelve of us doing the tour it was really personal & we got to hold & have our photo taken with loads of animals & ask any questions we wanted.

I got to hold a female crocodile called Barbie, (named because she felt like plastic), a black male cockatoo called Shadow, a Carpet Python, a blue tongue lizard & a Koala called Barney who I absolute adored & wanted to bring home with me, he was so soft although he did have big claws. We paid a bit extra to have professional photos taken with Barney but it was worth it as they were really good. We also saw a baby Wallaby who was really cute & two baby Kangaroos, (Joeys!). We spent the afternoon on the beach but it went a bit cloudy so headed home & did some reading & a couple of things on the internet.

On Sunday we got up early & checked out, we got a bus to the ferry terminal & an early ferry back to Townsville. On the ferry I heard someone call my name & I turned around to see James our friend we'd met in Cairns, he had managed to book himself on the same Whitsunday's boat & Fraser Island trip so he would be our travel companion for the next couple of weeks which was nice.

Our days spent relaxing on Magnetic Island were much needed after our madness in Cairns & our three weeks of pretty much constant driving. With our batteries recharged we arrived in Townsville & got the bus to Airlie Beach.

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