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21st - 23rd April - Cairns to Magnetic Island and Townsville
After spending some further time in Cairns we finally managed to get round to booking our Oz Experience to start our trip down the East coast towards Sydney. First stop was Magnetic Island, just off the coast from Townsville. When the bus arrived it was smaller than I had expected but we all crammed in and met our fellow Oz Experience travellers. On the trip down we stopped off at a large scale croc farm where the animals are farmed for their meat and skin. On arrival the guy brought a small croc on board and allowed us all to have a hold. Its a weird texture! When being passed around the baby seemed relatively calm until he was passed to me when he chose to go a bit crazy and make a wriggle for freedom. They're suprisingly strong even when they are so small! We were also able to hold the snakes and parrots which were kept at the centre. We then went into the enclosure to feed the wallabies and kangaroos before visiting the cages of some very big crocodiles during feeding time. The ranger entered the
The run of death
Try running through that! cages with pieces of chicken and threw them towards a still pool of stagnant water at which point a 6 metre croc jumped out. It was impressive to see the sheer power these reptiles posess! After this we went over to see the Cassowary which is a large bird capable of growing to 2 metres in height. The feathers shouldn't fool anyone as these birds have a large nail on the inside of their foot with which they have been known to disembowel a human who came too close. We were able to see its agression as the ranger again entered the cage and drew it near. It leaped towards the stick he was holding and seemed very capable of doing some serious damage!
Back on the bus we made our way towards Mission Beach as our driver, who was about as interesting as a teaspoon, spieled on about this and that. We stopped in Mission Beach for a pickup and then continued down towards Townsville after lunch. On arrival in Townsville we caught the short boat journey over to Magnetic Island. The sun set as we were at sea and it seemed we had reached an island retreat
after the party life in Cairns. After a bus journey over to Horseshoe Bay on the other side of the island we finally arrived at our hostel. By this time it was dark so we set ourselves up in the little wooden bungalo before making our way down to the bar for Pizza and to play cards. It was on the way that a large creature ran past us in the darkness resembling a very large rat. On closer inspection we discovered it was a Possom!
The next morning we made our way down to Horseshoe Bay to check out the beach. The bay was calm and the water looked very inviting. With it still being stinger season we had to limit the swimming to within the stinger nets. Surrounding the bay were large rocky outcrops which looked fake, more suited to the log flume at Disney World. In the evening we stayed on the beach and watched a spectacular sunset as it went down over the bay. On the walk back to the hostel we spotted a small fluffy animal in the trees. It was a Koala! There is a large population on Magnetic Island and it was
great to see one in the wild. This evenings activities consisted of a pub quiz back at the hostel which we didnt win, but I still won a free drink. Result! We then went to bed in the bungalo to the sound of some crazy animals in the surrounding trees.
On Wednesday 23rd April we rose early to attempt one of the many island walks. Walking along Horseshoe Bay we detoured over the headland towards Radical Bay. After a 45 minute walk we arrived at Radical Bay to find a deserted bay with a sandy beach, very much like paradise. I could have spent the whole day relaxing but unfortunately we had to get back to the dock to catch our boat back across to Townsville. The Manchester United V Barcalona game was being played this evening and we couldn't miss it! We hoped to find somewhere in Townsville to watch it. Fingers crossed! Checking into our hostel we then went for a look around the town. It seemed a bit of a ghost town as we wandered the streets, most of which seemed fairly empty. That evening we went to collect our free meal at a local bar...it
was minimal!
The next morning, having successfully watched the Manchester United game at 4 in the morning, we headed over to the boat terminal to reunite with the Oz Bus which would be taking us further on our East Coast adventure down to Aerlie Beach.
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