Maggie Island

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Spent a day sailing around the Whitsunday's on the boat 'Camira', was expecting it to be really tacky and touristy (we'd gone for the cheapest option avaliable) but was pleasantly suprised. Did some snorkeling but the visability was really poor and the reef wasn't that excited - made me exciting for all the dive trips I'm doing before I leave Aus though! Went to Whitehaven beach, was really stunning, perfectly white sand, clear blue water, like Lake Mackenzie. Can't really describe it any better than that, basically was the most perfect beach ever! Spent the rest of the day sailing around the Whitesunday's, they were nice, the weathers good but it's hard to be interested in sea, sand, islands and trees when I've seen an awful lot of them this year and they all look pretty similar! The next day we spent relaxing on Long Island in a resort, was really hot and like going on a beach holiday for a day!

Drove to Townsville via Bowen, the tiny town where they did most of the filming for 'Australia'. Was quite excited about running down the pier Nicole Kidman style and spending the day walking around breathing in the air that Hugh Jackman breathed recently. Got there to find that there wasn't anything to see, they'd just put fronts on the buildings that were already there and they'd even brought in the red dust to make the roads unsurfaced. We satisfied ourselves by taken photos next to a giant mango. Townsville was dead, absolutley silent, saw no one. In my opinion it is odd by they close ALL the shops on a SATURDAY, only the best shopping day of the week. I thought swine flu had taken out the entire population or we'd driven to Mars - there's a very big red rock that is the backdrop to the city and sort of stares at you when you walk around the town. It was soo hot and so boring so we went to the cinema and later that evening went to a carnival celebrating the 139.5th birthday of Townsville or something equally worth celebrating. Lots of motorcross bikes and various small cars racing around and lots of food stalls that we had to walk passed quickly to avoid obesity.

Got out of Townsville ASAP and went to Magnetic Island, possibly my favourite stop yet in Australia, staying at a really nice popular hostel on the beach. Me and Siov are sleeping in some sort of permenant tent, reminds me of MASH or something like that. It's nice although we've been warned that possums often come into the tent... we didn't have any problems although a kookaburra did try to eat our breakfast and wasn't scared when we tried to shoo it away. Explored the island a bit and there wasn't much but it's really pretty. Siov was doing a dive course but she didn't take to it well so for a few days I was lounging around whilst she was studying! Met some Canadian girls (I've learnt during this trip that Canadians are into extreme or outdoor sports and also very positive about EVERYTHING! I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule but I've yet to meet one) and we went sea kayaking, didn't see much but was good to do something slightly active!

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