MONDAY 3RD AUGUST
We woke up EXTREMELY early, at about 5am to get ready and get our taxi into town to be ready for the Oz Experience bus - as it turned out, we were about 1.5 hours early for it, oh well better to be there early! The bus pulled up right on the dot at 7.20am as scheduled. We were slightly worried about luggage, as the paperwork states on 15kg... and lets just say mine is alot more than that! - and Sarah's suitcase is HUGE! But there was no problem as you pretty much stock up the compartments yourself. As we got going, the driver introduced himself as 'SCOOTER' and told us what we'd be doing that day. Basically, Oz Experience don't just drive you to places, they stop at various points of interest on the way. - The bus also doesnt have a toilet, so these stops are pretty neccessary! The first stop was a small town, which gets the most rainfall of anywhere in Australia, as it's next to all the rainforests and mountain ranges - I think the most that they ever had was about 10meters in a year.
Next up we stopped at a 'croc farm' - where we fed kangaroos, saw Cassowarys (finally), Dingos and a large amount of Crocodiles in various enclosures. We also saw the feeding of the crocs, which was really a site to be seen. How this young lad did not get eaten I do not know. He was shouting "C'MON BRUNO, GET UP GET UP" and hitting them on the nose with a stick to make them come out of the water for the big lump of chicken meat. The rule is that if they don't come out the water and 'work' for their food, they don't get any. Apparently Crocodiles don't need to eat that often, they get their energy from the sun. There was an opportunity to hold a baby croc, which had it's jaw held together with Cellotape, but I swear this little baby was eyeing me up, even when other people were holding it. So I decided I wasnt going to risk it, thank you very much.
Another quick stop to grab lunch and then on to Townsville. The driver announced that "no-one in their right mind would want to stay there" - to which we said "uhhh... we are for one night". - he gave his condolences.
Townsville was quite a nice place really... I would describe it as Kingston, with a port... and in the twilight zone, as it was just dead. - All the bars and pubs said that they were open... as in Monday - Friday etc etc but nowhere was... maybe it was low season... or maybe a bank holiday?
The place we were staying at was certainly interesting... resembling an old prison. The room was like a cell as well, with white breeze block walls and painted concrete floors.
We had a long walk around Townsville and took some pictures of some of the sights. One of these was a HUGE spider hung across the road on a 'web', which was really quite scary! - Some kind of art I think! In the evening, Sarah and I went to a curry house, which was attached to the hostel. It was very nice, but they got our order wrong. Sarah had asked for VERY mild and I wanted medium. They swapped these unfortunately, so we had to swap!
Sarah and I both had a great night sleep as we didn't actually have anyone else in our cell (room), so the only snoring was me for ten seconds - must have been REALLY comfortable!
TUESDAY 4TH AUGUST
Woke up quite early again and got the bus down to the ferry which took us to Magnetic Island - so called because Captain Cook (again) had had a bit of compass trouble when they sailed around it. The weather had gotten ALOT nicer, not a cloud in the sky - phew. Once we got to the island, which is VERY tropical and full of palm trees and hills. Reminded me alot of Maui or maybe the LOST island.
We got to BASE hostel very quickly, having heard alot about this hostel, supposedly the 'best hostel in australia'. Not sure I would go that far, it certainly has the best location, RIGHT on the beach, but there was a few 'issues' we had with them. i.e. the wireless didnt work, half the computers didnt work, the kayak and bike hire wasnt available during our stay, the MOKE hire (small barbie cars) were alot more expensive than we had come to expect.
- $78 for the day!?!? that's more than a regular car. There was also a shortage of fruit juice, so the cocktail list consisted of 1 choice. The dorms were basically a hut built off of the ground with not alot of room and quite alot of ants.
Otherwise it's a pretty nice hostel and the food at the bar was EXCELLENT - very much enjoyed our 2 meals and free breakfast!!!
For this day, Sarah and I had a little hike over to the next bay - Picnic Bay, which involved a very steep slope and then lots of stairs going down. Picnic bay was very secluded and had a little fishing pier. We stopped for a milkshake at an italian family restaurant before heading back for a nap and then dinner.
WEDNESDAY 5TH AUGUST
Today we decided to rent bikes and cycle around the island. As the hostel rental place was not open, we walked for about 20 minutes down the road to the nearest shop. - Somehow, they had the new releases of our favourite magazines?! - so a day before most mainland shops? very weird. Anyway, the lady at the till told us about a nearby rental shop which we got to quickly and rented a bike for the day for $20.00. We had a good ride around just to remind ourselves how to ride a bike! We rode back to the port and went to go round to the next bay - horseshoe bay, but Sarah wasn't brave enough to cycle round the high corner on the road. So instead, we rode back to the hostel and then continued further to Picnic bay again, which involved cycling down a very steep hill. It was fun riding so fast! - yes we had borrowed helmets too.
After around 3 hours of cycling and some very sore bums, we returned back to the shop to return the bikes and then back to the hostel for a fantastic dinner and a few cocktails. We also saw a possum climbing one of the palm trees on our way back to the room.
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