Rain stops play

Once the team is up we make our way to the coach and load up ready to head to Townsville. We stop here and have a quick lunch at the Quarter Back before loading on to the ferry to Magnetic Island. Magnetic Island was named by James Cook in 1770 because he thought his ship’s magnetic compass was being affected by the island as they sailed past. This turned out not to be true and although the indigenous name for the island is Yunbenun, Magnetic Island has persisted and is now popularly known as ‘Maggie’.

The weather is rather grey and, I have to admit, my adventures are starting to catch up with me as I am feeling rather tired. After we arrive on the island and have checked into our hostel I decide to take myself off for a little walk as we don’t have much planned for the rest of the day. I don’t go too far – I wander up the road and into the rocks following a small footpath and manage to find a nice rock at the top of a hill to sit on and take in the fresh air. Once I head back down the group is getting ready for bingo night at the hostel but I am feeling pretty worn out so decide to give it a miss and go to bed early.

The next day was similar weather – just pouring it down. Once I am up I head again to the hostel’s bar/restaurant area and spend the morning just doing boring life admin tasks. A lot of the group has started applying for jobs etc as we are nearing the end of our journey and quite a few of us are staying on after the trip on a work holiday visa. After lunch I am bored of staring at the computer so decided to be social again and few others and I start having a few drinks and chatting, which continued for the rest of our day. The weather prohibits us from doing many of the things the island has to offer, so we make the most of the bar. Unsurprisingly it is another early night but tonight we to go to bed with hope – it is suppose to be sunny tomorrow.

The next day we are heading back to Townsville so I get up and get myself packed and ready to leave and checked out. The group takes up a few of the tables with our bags as we wait for the taxis to come and take us to the ferry back to the Greyhound. Once back in Townsville we have to kill a couple of hours before our Greyhound arrives to take us to Mission Beach. After checking in I spend the afternoon playing some pool games with Charlie and Matt who I am sharing a room with. We see the night in with a movie in our room, a horror movie. It is nice to have an actual hotel-like room with a proper bed, instead of a hostel bunk bed for a change and I go to bed pretty certain I am gonna have a good night’s sleep!

Abandoned Fort walk

Rain stops play

Off to Alders Point

Birthday... boy?

I wake up the next day feeling a lot better, today is Karoline’s birthday so the group meet for a bday brunch. It’s fun and the hostel do decent breakfast options which I am happy about, for someone who doesn’t eat breakfast very often I am a fan of breakfast foods. After the brunch is done it is time to break up into groups to rent some Jeeps we can use to get around the island. I phoned up to book for my group a couple days ago back in Airlie and it was an interesting experience! Having spoken to the others everyone had struggled a bit with the guy over the phone as he had a thick Ozzie accent. Those who didn’t speak English as their first language especially struggled with it. I think this may be my first experience with a ‘bogan’. It was a pretty weird experience renting cars from this guy who seemed to have a ‘bit of a screw loose’, but we got there in the end. Some of us then decided to go on the Fort walk: it was not a very long hike and we managed to spot a Koala on the way but unfortunately we didn’t quite make it to the fort. It started to rain so hard that we all got soaked and decided to call it a day before reaching the top. The rain was so bad it stopped two or three people’s phones from working due to water damage! After the walk we chilled in the hostel bar escaping the rain. Some of us, including Karoline, played Uno for ages before we head off to bed for an early night.

The Giant Golden Orb Weaver (Nephila pilipes)

Rain, rain go away...

Luckily the weather forecast was right and I wake up to the sun shining. To make the most of it I hop in the car with Kerry, Nienke and Emily and we go exploring the island. First we head to butterfly forest. A name that I think is slightly exaggerated, it is less of a forest and more of a wooded area. There are however, a decent amount of butterflies here along with a lot of the other critters that come with a wooded area. Next we head off to Alders Point for some views of the island before we head to the IGA to get ourselves some lunch. The afternoon is spent chilling in the pool playing different ball games and enjoying the sun while we have it. Later there is a beer pong contest and Matt and I sign up as a team coming second, annoyingly, to Aron and Charlie who spend the rest of the evening complaining they only have this evening to spend their winnings at the bar. A problem I offer to help them with. The night ends with Kerry, Abby, Aron and I drunkenly heading to the beach for a quick skinny dip. Although this is Abby’s idea she is the only one who doesn’t get in the sea and it takes us a few attempts to get her back to her room and into bed!

Grey skies

Hilltop walk

Koala close-up

Repping the Fireball (a cinnamon flavoured whiskey)