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Published: March 12th 2010
Magnetic Island
Stunning views from the top of Magnetic Island. - After a fantastic time in Cairns it was time to move on even though we could have easily spent longer there. We got our stuff ready and checked out of the hostel, we caught a taxi to the Greyhound coach terminal. We were a little early so in the meantime we sat in the café opposite and had some breakfast. Soon enough the coach arrived and we jumped on board. Including our lunch stop just off the motorway the trip took around 6 hours to get to Townsville. Once we arrived we bought return tickets to the ferry to Magnetic Island and boarded it straight away. It took another 20 minutes on a very rough and windy ride across. Next we jumped onto another bus which dropped us off right outside our YHA hostel.
The hostel was amazing, the accommodation consisted of dozens of bungalows surrounded in gum trees and bush. Hannah and I had our own little bungalow, it was fantastic. We arrived during lorikeet feeding time so we waded our way through at least 40-50 Rainbow Lorikeets going mad. It was a chilled evening which we spent having a swim then a few drinks at the
Magnetic Island
Our fantastic bungalow accomodation at Bungalow Bay, Magnetic Island bar. We walked down to Horseshoe Bay to have a look around and ended up having fish’n’chips for dinner, it wasn’t very good at all. We headed back to our Bungalow and had another early night.
26/11/2009 - Since most of the activities on Magnetic Island were watersport based and also quite expensive we decided to do one of the free walks around the island. We chose one called ‘The Forts’ walk which took us up to an old World War II lookout between Magnetic Island and Townsville. We jumped on the bus from our hostel and bought a daily ticket then asked to be dropped off at the beginning of the walk. It was insanely hot today and already in the early morning we were sweating. The walk took about 45 minutes to get to the top where along the way we saw some of the ruins of the World War II base and also some stunning lookout points over Magnetic Island. By the time we got to the top both Hannah and I were boiling and quickly running out of water to drink. We headed back, it took another 45 minutes to walk back, shortly after the
Magnetic Island
Hiking in the intense heat on a scorching hot day on Magnetic Island bus picked us up, finally some air conditioning.
While on the bus we decided to head to the end of the line at Picnic Bay to have a look around. But we soon found out there really wasn’t much to do at this extremely quiet and secluded beach so after a quick walk around jumped back onto the bus. Next we stopped at Nelly Bay for lunch, we took Lonely Planet’s advice and ate a small place called Fat Possum Café which was really really good, simple food but very tasty. It was so hot outside we needed to cool off, we returned to the hostel and turned the air conditioning on as soon as we got back to our bungalow. We laid down on the bed and fell asleep almost straight away, both Hannah and I slept for a few hours.
I woke up to the sound of Rainbow Lorikeet’s and headed over to the feeding area where they were all waiting to eat. Out came one of the staff who was covered in Lorikeets, they were everywhere. I watched as people took some soggy bread and the birds came flying from all directions. Afterwards we had
Magnetic Island
The ruins of a lookout turret gun from the war. a swim then got ourselves ready to head into town for dinner. Again we relied on Lonely Planet and chose a Mexican in town, it was also very good. Once we finished up with dinner we took the bus home and went sleep.
27/11/2009 - Today we were leaving beautiful Magnetic Island and heading for Airlie Beach. However this morning we booked breakfast in the wildlife park next door to the hostel. We checked out of the hostel and left our luggage at reception waiting for the ranger to meet us. He eventually arrived and led us across to the small wildlife park where a fully cooked breakfast buffet was waiting for us. He handed each of us a glass of champagne with guava juice as we all rushed over to the buffet to eat. Around us were small enclosures including a few cockatoo’s and a koala, then once we began to eat our breakfast the staff brought around a small crocodile and snake to greet us.
After everyone was full we all headed over to the koala enclosure for a brief chat with the ranger. I was more interested in the cockatoos, one of which would jump
Magnetic Island
Exploring a massive pier on Magnetic Island, you can see Townsville in the distance. on your arm. We had a look around the other enclosures at the back of the small park before eventually headed back to reception. It was a good experience which lasted for around 3 hours. We grabbed our luggage and took the bus to the ferry back to Townsville. It was a good 2 hour wait before the Greyhound coach arrived and when it did jumped aboard. It was a very long 5 hour drive until we reached Airlie Beach. Unfortunately the coach’s air conditioning was not working properly, it was stinking hot inside a coach full of travelers.
We arrived in Airlie Beach around 6PM and headed to our YHA hostel around the corner. We dumped our gear then headed out to have a look around, it was the reef festival tonight, people were everywhere. After wondering around for a while checking out what was going on we ate Mexican for dinner before returning to the hostel for bed.
Accommodation: Magnetic Island YHA
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