It was time to turn in the car so we hit the road early and headed toward the Townsville airport. The drive was nice and we passed some small towns along the way, we were making good time when we hit road construction and had to wait half an hour at a stop. This put us a little behind schedule but we still made it to the airport before 11am and turned in the car, we found a bus from the airport that would take us to the ferry terminal. Along most of the road every 10-20 miles there were huge rope bridge crossings spanning the 4 lane highway for the tree kangaroos, we hope to see one making its way across but never did.
Once on the ferry the ride was a quick 20min, and we were picked up by Ian, the owner of our hostel, in an old pea green Rolls Royce, boy did we feel special! Our hostel was a quick 5min drive from the ferry terminal, we were located right across the street from the ocean and away from the resorts on the other side of the island, it was such a great spot. Our safari tent was wonderful, it had a large queen bed with very comfortable mattress and a fan so we could get some circulation at night, but the best part is we had the safari tent area to ourselves, and there was only a few other people there but we never really saw them.
The Fort's hike takes you up to a hill that had an army fort and hidden artillery back in WWII to fight off the Japanese, but the main reason for us going on this hike was to spot wild Koala's! The trail was nice and did not have debris on it so I felt safe knowing if we were around a snake we would probably see it before we were up on it, but then I read a sign to the side of the trail that said "Stay on the trail, death adders are in this area", crap…when I read up on all the snakes in Aussie it said that most will feel your vibration and slither away to hide but the death adder keeps his ground and will not slink away. Oh how the Aussie wildlife keeps you alert and scared! The hike was pretty with gum and eucalyptus trees all around even though my eyes were on the trail 99% of the time which was good thing because someone had written with sticks “Koala” with an arrow pointing to the left of the trail. As we looked up we did see 1 koala sleeping in a ball and he did not even wake up as we were taking pictures and whispering in excitement. We would have walked right past this Koala if someone had not let us know to look they are very hard to see! We started our climb and a little further up the trail heard this snorting pig noise and we knew a koala was close, we stopped and looked around for a while and finally we saw a mama and a baby way up in a tree! We were so lucky they made that noise or else we would have walked right by them, the baby was trying to feed and the mom was falling asleep on the job. We tried to get some pictures but both of their faces were behind branches and they don't move around much. We continued on the hike and looked at the old war ruins and climbed one of the standing towers to look at the great views. On our way back down we saw that the mom and baby koala had still not moved, but we waited about 10min and the baby moved and climbed to a higher branch and then settled in to sleep facing us, we are so glad we waited and got some awesome photos!
Back at the hostel we met a new guest Edo from Israel. He was overweight, super nerdy, and arrogant, we figured he will live with his mother for the rest of his life! He was a nice kid but was a freaken expert on everything, Paul and I bit our tongues quite a bit during our conversations since with these types of people it's all you can do. It was still fun to talk to him about Israel and his military service, his job was to pick who was recruited into each job for their military service, interesting…
On our last day at magnetic island we rented stinger suites, snorkel gear and walked across the street to a reef Ian told us about. We could not find the reef and my mask was not working so we took the bus to horseshoe bay on the other side of the island and hiked to B bay. The hike was not far and I was on the lookout for snakes, then the trail turned into a waterfall trail and we were not sure if we should continue or if this was normal, we decided to turn around. Heading back we ran into a local walking in flip flops who asked us why we turned around and we told him that the trail was flooded, he told us we did not have much farther to go and this beach was the best on the island. He also asked if we had walking sticks, (we did not) he said he uses his to get snakes off the trail, but he only see's about 4 a year so we should be fine without one. We decided to follow this crazy local in flip flops to the beach, he was right, we were just about there and it was beautiful. Once we arrived this local also informed us it was a nudist beach, yes he was a nudist, and if you ask me he needed to hit the gym before strutting his stuff. He was respectful though and walked and swam in the ocean on the other side from where we were. Paul snorkeled again without much luck, and since the guy said once you leave the bay's there are large tiger sharks (yikes!) he stayed in the bay. After that we enjoyed relaxing and soaking up the sun.
The next day we boarded the ferry to head back to the mainland. It was hard to leave relaxing magnetic island, but we were excited to fly back to Sydney and see what the Blue Mountains were all about.
Once on the ferry the ride was a quick 20min, and we were picked up by Ian, the owner of our hostel, in an old pea green Rolls Royce, boy did we feel special! Our hostel was a quick 5min drive from the ferry terminal, we were located right across the street from the ocean and away from the resorts on the other side of the island, it was such a great spot. Our safari tent was wonderful, it had a large queen bed with very comfortable mattress and a fan so we could get some circulation at night, but the best part is we had the safari tent area to ourselves, and there was only a few other people there but we never really saw them.
We lounged by the pool and went to a small local grocery store, and a bottle shop to treat ourselves to some Gin and Tonics, we borrowed the Pixar movie Cars to watch in the open air lounge area and enjoyed the movie, our G&T's, and watching all of the lizards and gecko's climb on the walls. We slept well with the fan on, it is amazing how much more comfortable the humidity can be when you get that thick air circulating.
The next day we decided to explore the island so we walked down the road to check out a place that rock wallaby's lived, another family arrived just before us and brought some fruit reins and peels so we walked up on quite a few the wallaby's eating! They were super cute and the mom's had babies in their pouches so once the mom stopped hopping around the baby would poke it's head out to see what was going on, it was so so so cute! We watched them for a good 30mins before we walked back to the hostel to catch the bus to the start of the Fort's trial head.
The Fort's hike takes you up to a hill that had an army fort and hidden artillery back in WWII to fight off the Japanese, but the main reason for us going on this hike was to spot wild Koala's! The trail was nice and did not have debris on it so I felt safe knowing if we were around a snake we would probably see it before we were up on it, but then I read a sign to the side of the trail that said "Stay on the trail, death adders are in this area", crap…when I read up on all the snakes in Aussie it said that most will feel your vibration and slither away to hide but the death adder keeps his ground and will not slink away. Oh how the Aussie wildlife keeps you alert and scared! The hike was pretty with gum and eucalyptus trees all around even though my eyes were on the trail 99% of the time which was good thing because someone had written with sticks “Koala” with an arrow pointing to the left of the trail. As we looked up we did see 1 koala sleeping in a ball and he did not even wake up as we were taking pictures and whispering in excitement. We would have walked right past this Koala if someone had not let us know to look they are very hard to see! We started our climb and a little further up the trail heard this snorting pig noise and we knew a koala was close, we stopped and looked around for a while and finally we saw a mama and a baby way up in a tree! We were so lucky they made that noise or else we would have walked right by them, the baby was trying to feed and the mom was falling asleep on the job. We tried to get some pictures but both of their faces were behind branches and they don't move around much. We continued on the hike and looked at the old war ruins and climbed one of the standing towers to look at the great views. On our way back down we saw that the mom and baby koala had still not moved, but we waited about 10min and the baby moved and climbed to a higher branch and then settled in to sleep facing us, we are so glad we waited and got some awesome photos!
Back at the hostel we met a new guest Edo from Israel. He was overweight, super nerdy, and arrogant, we figured he will live with his mother for the rest of his life! He was a nice kid but was a freaken expert on everything, Paul and I bit our tongues quite a bit during our conversations since with these types of people it's all you can do. It was still fun to talk to him about Israel and his military service, his job was to pick who was recruited into each job for their military service, interesting…
On our last day at magnetic island we rented stinger suites, snorkel gear and walked across the street to a reef Ian told us about. We could not find the reef and my mask was not working so we took the bus to horseshoe bay on the other side of the island and hiked to B bay. The hike was not far and I was on the lookout for snakes, then the trail turned into a waterfall trail and we were not sure if we should continue or if this was normal, we decided to turn around. Heading back we ran into a local walking in flip flops who asked us why we turned around and we told him that the trail was flooded, he told us we did not have much farther to go and this beach was the best on the island. He also asked if we had walking sticks, (we did not) he said he uses his to get snakes off the trail, but he only see's about 4 a year so we should be fine without one. We decided to follow this crazy local in flip flops to the beach, he was right, we were just about there and it was beautiful. Once we arrived this local also informed us it was a nudist beach, yes he was a nudist, and if you ask me he needed to hit the gym before strutting his stuff. He was respectful though and walked and swam in the ocean on the other side from where we were. Paul snorkeled again without much luck, and since the guy said once you leave the bay's there are large tiger sharks (yikes!) he stayed in the bay. After that we enjoyed relaxing and soaking up the sun.
The next day we boarded the ferry to head back to the mainland. It was hard to leave relaxing magnetic island, but we were excited to fly back to Sydney and see what the Blue Mountains were all about.
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