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Published: November 15th 2018
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Day 1: Cairns/Mission Beach/Tully/Townsville - 480 kms
We picked up our Hyundai Santa Fe and started our trip at 9am. Shaun took the wheel first. Our first stop was Mission Beach, which was very nice. We had a walk but didn’t swim as it is jellyfish season and some jellyfish are deadly!
After that, I was driving! We stopped in Tully as Shaun wanted to take a picture of the golden Gumboot for our British friends Josh and Matt who worked around there for a little bit. We had a cheap sausage roll in a bakery in Tully - a really old looking town with old looking shops!
I took the wheel again for the remaining half of the trip. We stopped in Coles in Ingham to buy some biscuits and a cold coffee (it is about 35 degrees outside and the sun hits the car so even with the air-con it is pretty hot!).
Shaun drove for the rest of the way up until Townsville where we parked our little Santa Fe in a safe car park and took the Fantasea ferry to Magnetic Island.
It was 6pm and we saw a beautiful sunset from the ferry. Once arrived
on the island, we walked a couple of kilometers to our accommodation, Arcadia Beach Guest House. It was past 7pm and the nearest bar stopped serving food at 8pm so our host advised us to get going if we wanted to eat! We were ravenous so we walked to Arcadia Hotel and had the dinner deal (trying to stay cheap!).
After dinner, we walked around as per our host’s advice and saw rock wallabies! There was a mum with a baby in her pouch, it was so cute! We were on our own, with the wallabies and under more stars than I ever saw, it was a really nice moment! We couldn’t really take pictures as it was very dark but the moment is etched in our memories!
Day 2: Koalas and Wallabies on Magnetic Island
On the next day, we walked to the supermarket to buy food for our next 5 meals. There were a few outdoor kitchens and living rooms in our guesthouse and it was nice to cook outside. We made breakfast, packed some homemade sandwiches and left to explore the island. We had just missed a bus and decided not to wait so we walked
Koalas
An adult and a baby (zoom in!) a few kilometers to the Fort walk. On the way to the fort, we saw a koala and its baby, it was adorable! The view from the top (the fort) was quite beautiful. We had some sandwiches and walked back down. We walked further to see some more koalas in a spot described by our guesthouse host. By that time, our legs were aching and we were both sunburnt in spite of the sunscreen we had applied regularly. We saw a couple more wild koalas there and then we walked to Horseshoe Bay. We knew there was an ice cream shop and we had been looking forward to ice cream for quite a while! After about ten kilometers walk on the hills of Magnetic Island under a burning sun, it tasted delicious!!
We had a quick walk on Horseshoe Bay - it is not the most beautiful beach on the island but it is still nice. There was a stinger net on so people could swim (at this time of year, there are many deadly jellyfish on that part of the coast and swimming without a stinger suit is ill advised). We hadn’t packed swimsuits and we were a bit
tired so we just sat for a bit while waiting for the next bus to bring us back to the guesthouse. We saw very colourful parakeets. After a relaxing hour (and a good shower!), we made dinner and talked to a Norwegian woman. We then went to the Arcadia Hotel as they hold toad races every Wednesday (the money goes to lifesavers, I think). We had never heard of toad races before and were curious so we went. It was an interesting experience! After that, we went back to the see the rock wallabies but they were very shy and we only saw one - and not from as close as the night before. Apparently, tourists go there during the day and can be rough with the animals, touching them etc. People can be pretty stupid and inconsiderate.
We walked back to our tent and, once more, fell asleep to the screeching noise of bats. One thing people don’t tell you about the east coast of Australia (and possibly the rest of it but we haven’t been there so cannot be sure!): it is full of bats. We’ve never seen so many bats before. And they can be very loud!
In the morning, especially around sunrise, the bush turkeys (here again, there are so many of them!!) make very loud noises too. So we didn’t have the best sleep for two nights but it was nice to stay in a tent and hear the wildlife around us.
The next morning, we packed, cooked breakfast, made sandwiches and took the 9.55am ferry back to Townsville!
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