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We arrived on Magnetic Island at about 3pm on the Sun Ferry and travelled by the island bus to our backpackers hotel - Bungalow Bay. This was a great hostel, the staff were a little slow at times but the accommodation and the bar etc were pretty sweet.
The first night we just got some dinner and chilled at the bar, but we then got interrupted by a massive amount of bird noise coming from near the park that the hostel site sits on. I walked over and it was the 4.30pm lorakeet feeding time. These birds look quite like mini parrots and the ranger had left out some bread and water for them to feed on.
You could pick up the food and feed them and at one point I had about 10 birds on my arms, head and shoulders. Pretty funny experience that one.
The birds feed in pairs and then there is a dominant bird for the flock of the birds. Things got interesting when a couple of birds didn't like another birds landing on me and that cued them to dig their claws into me leaving me with a few marks on my
arms. All good though.
Having left Debs and Caz back in Airlie Beach, I had caught up with two Canadian women - Dixie and Jenna and a Dutch guy called Jason who had met on the Atlantic Clipper in the Whitsundays and it would be these guys who I would be spending most of the time with on Magnetic Island.
Magnetic Island is a pretty functional island, people do holiday there but it is a working island and people commute from the island over to Twnsville by ferry to work there also.
The next morning. Had t get up quite early to catch the bus over to the Reef Safari dive company over on south of the island, just past the ferry terminal.
The dive was great, it was the first time I had been really super relaxed and my air lasted a lot longer as a result. There was two of us on the dive plus the instructor. It wasn't too deep, only 7 meters, but it was great as we saw blue spotted sting ray, big angel fish and some wollygongs. My air lasted for 45 minutes, which was the longest dive I
have done so far. This bodes well for the advanced dive course that I have booked in Cairns.
After the dive was over I headed back t the hostel to have some lunch and then to get on to the Koala tour back at the hostel. The tour was pretty good and was included in the $130 price I had paid for the package.
It started with a look at some fresh water turtles and then we got to hold some skinks. Skinks are quite a weird animal, and I wasn't too over the moon at holding them. We then got to meet two big birds, one was black parrot called shadow and the other was another white and gold crested parrot called Captain. We were told by the ranger that Captain had the brain age of a 3 year old and had about 300 words he could say. All I heard him say was 'Hello Captain' but still pretty impressive.
The other parrot - Shadow would take sunflower seeds out of your mouth to eat, he also would break the seeds in his beak before eating them. Quality.
After the birds we saw a freshwater
crocodile which we got to hold and a python called Gucci, who wrapped his tale around my neck pretty tightly. It looked like I was wearing a snake scarf. Then came the main event, the meeting of Dexter the Koala.
Apparently they have a brain the size of a pea and they think everything is a tree so when you hold one you need to be as still as possible or they will try and climb you wi their very sharp claws. I found it interesting that they live till about 10 years as they all die of the same problem, starvation.
What happens is that the eucalyptus leaves are very tough for them to eat and in eating them they grind down their teeth to nothing. Once this happens they can't eat anymore and in the wild it takes them about 3 days to starve to death. In captivity they last a little bit longer but they get put down when they can't eat anything which is a little more humane.
After the tour we headed back to our rooms and got ready to go out for the Toad Race night at the Magnums Hostel
on the island. This is a pretty quality experience. You basically all sit round in a circle on chairs, the man running the show picks out the toads and each of them has a co ribbon tied to them. The Toad Man then announces each toad and puts them on the ground so that you can see how fast they are. Bidding then starts on each toad until all of them are bought, whoever gets the toad and that toad then gets to from their middle starting position to the outer ring first wins.
There are three races in the evening each with the same toads, and bar one race the same toad won every time. I think it had something to do with it being in put into the playing field last.
It was a pretty awesome day on Magnetic Island and one that I will remember for a long time t come.
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