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Published: August 28th 2007
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koala
Yep thats pretty much all they do!! but how cute!!!! Greyhound Bus Our first greyhound bus adventure! Now we feel like real backpackers! We walked to the bus terminal in Cairns with our shoulders screaming by the time we dumped our bags. Clutching our booking forms we slipped into our allocated seats. Our driver seemed to take sadistic pleasure in sitting the singles together with a stranger, mean man. The time passed quite quickly, although we were grateful for books and the iPod to block out the horrendous kiddy movie playing at full blast. We arrived at Townsville just in time to hop onto the next ferry to Magnetic Island. It only took 20 minutes to cross over from the mainland but it was a rather bumpy ride. We jumped on a bus for the short ride to Magnums Backpacker resort.
After checking in to the resort, we walked to nearby Alma Cove, which was incredibly pretty despite the fierce breeze sweeping across the bay. Regardless of the chill, an old guy in speedos seemed to enjoy jumping the waves. That evening we enjoyed a tasty meal at Magnums and sat sipping a jug of XXXX Gold (it's much nicer than Castlemaine in the UK) whilst watching the moon turn
The red moon
If you closely!!! you can see the blood red moon! haven't got 20,000x optical zoom!! red in a lunar eclipse. The moment was slightly spoilt by some gobby fake blonde kappa slappa shouting her mouth off in a familiar Brummie accent. We avoided her like the plague, and later discovered she hailed from Burntwood! Retired for the night, only to discover our wood panelled ceiling was making disturbing popping and crackling noises. Either it was a noisy infestation or the electrics were playing up. We had a rather fitful night's sleep and moved rooms the next day as they suspected some critter had chewed through the wiring.
Cuddling Koalas Next morning we caught the bus to Bungalow Bay Koala Park and spent a wonderful morning cuddling a cute koala. Jase rather disturbingly liked the scent of koala poo on his hand (because our cuddly friend had a rather crusty botty!) thinking it smelt like pot pouri. It was a great little park with wallabies hopping around, where we enjoyed encounters with a baby croc, a blue-tongued lizard and had a carpet python drapped around our necks. Rach got attacked by a crazy cockatoo before we went on a bush walk. The bush was dotted with fluttering butterflies, with a particularly stunning blue Ulysses butterfly
Nice python!
Who's holding who here! dancing through the trees. Gorgeous furry flying foxes hung from the tree tops and a scarily huge Golden Orb spider sitting in the middle of her web. A crazy old guy on our tour put his hand right next to her to demonstrate her size and caught her web. Yuk! We also spotted lots of green ant nests, which are made from lots of leaves wrapped together like a parcel. Apparently some of the others on our tour had enjoyed a cup of green ant tea for breakfast, which is made by steeping the ants nests in hot water. Errr...give me Yorkshire tea anyday!
That afternoon we walked into the National Park, climbing up to view some stunning vistas of the island and Alma Bay.We walked through the trees, listening to the twittering of the birds around us, thinking "I bet there's loads of snakes lurking under these logs and rocks!".
Cane Toad Racing That evening Magnums hosted their weekly Cane Toad Race, which helps fundraise for the junior surf life guards. It was a comical spectacle, an old barefooted Aussie guy rambling on incoherently about the charms of each toad, which he would then unceremoniously cast down
percy the python
Not his real name! liking rach alot more than jase! into the circle to demonstrate it's jumping prowess. In the two intitial races the toads were auctioned for high prices - the dumb blonde from Burntwood paid 40 Aussie dollars for a useless one. In the third and final auction Jase became determined to get a toad but it seemed a bit impossible because we only had $22 dollars in cash. Jase was lucky because we managed to get the final bid of $22 dollars on the last toad, Georgie Porgie. Donned in his yellow ribbon, Georgie was cast into the racing line-up. The Aussie guy whipped off the casket and the toads were off....well Georgie wasn't...he just sat there. However, after much shouting he literally sprang into life and hopped quickly forward to the finishing circle line, pausing dramatically for a second before making his final winning leap! Hurrah we won $80 Aussie dollars!
Our good fortune run out when we retreated to our new room, which we discovered was invaded by huge ants in pursuit of a half-empty can of sweetcorn lurking in our bin. The bin went out the back door but the ants seemed reluctant to leave. After one hour of persistently encouraging the ants
cute wallabies
Still no roo's though to leave by non-violent, gentle sweeping means, we resorted to massaccring the final few with our flip-flops. We sprayed a border of Mosi-Guard across the bedroom floor that no ant should pass on pain of death. Needless to say we didn't sleep too well that night.
The next morning we caught the ferry back to Townsville and climbed aboard another Greyhound Bus, destined for Airlie Beach.
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Jones
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Who?
Which one was Georgey Porgey again? WHAHH! (Avoids being hit by flying frog)