Jan 17, 2010

K, so I wrote this last week but never published, oops! Another tomorrow hopefully!

I just got back from Magnetic Island today I left Saturday morning and got back Monday evening. I woke up Saturday to a rainy and cloudy day in Mission Beach. I was hoping it wasn’t going to be that bad in Townsville, but it was. The instant I got on the bus a girl commented on my spoon purse and we chatted the entire 4hr ride to Townsville and rode the ferry together. Her name was Jenna and she was traveling with her boyfriend JF. They were from Canada, and were so sincere and so completely nice. I adored them. They were staying at Bungalow Bay and I was staying at Base across the island, but I had plans to make it out to Bungalow at some point, so I said I’d track them down. The ferry ride was pretty bumpy from the rain. The weather was just rainy and windy, but the water was quite rough, which made for a rough ride. It was short though. Once we got to the island, the rain had stopped, but it was still quite cloudy. There was a Cold Rock Creamery at the ferry station, so I HAD to get some. I’ve been craving Birthday Cake Remix for ages so I was pumped thinking they’d have it, but they didn’t. They didn’t even have the fixings for it! The next bus to the hostel was another 1.5hrs and the walk was said to be about 20 minutes, so I opted to walk. I didn’t bring much for luggage, just a messenger bag and my spoon purse, so it wasn’t a heavy walk. It took closer to 40 minutes though. Anyway, as soon as I checked in, it started raining again! I got to my room and started chatting up Claire, my roommate. Because the weather was crap and it was like 5pm, I figured I’d read a bit of my book, and then head down to the bar. I managed to sort of befriend all of the 6 people staying in the room but ended up heading down with Claire a bit later. The bartender was a bit of an ass, so we ordered two drinks and avoided the bar the rest of the night pretty much. We ended up spending a good half hour talking to some 50yr old ladies that were there for a birthday party. I think they were on some sort of team, but they were all dressed up insanely and dancing and singing. They were so funny. Clare was taking diving courses at the hostel with two others, Steph and Nick, so we hung out with them. Claire was from England, and Steph and Nick from Melbourne. We basically just sat around chatting about silly stuff until it started raining again, and then went back inside. The music was so loud that we had to start entertaining each other with hand gestures. That didn’t last that long and then we went to bed. It was probably only 11pm but it was a nice night. The next day I swore I was going to do something productive. I really wanted to go diving, but there was no way with the weather. I opted for a walk instead. On the bus to the walk I overheard some guys talking about going on the walk as well, so I walked with them. It was a 4km walk meant to take 1.5hrs. I think it took us about 2.5 because we stopped so many times. We read that it was probable to see wild koalas so we were on the lookout from the very beginning. I kept seeing the knots in tree trunks and I’d get excited thinking it was a koala and it wasn’t. Finally I saw a clump of trees and thought that this had to be the place. I looked for a minute and finally saw one! No idea how I managed because it was so far away and up in a tree, and not looking at us. We stopped and took photos for a good twenty minutes. A few other walkers saw us, took some photos as well, and walked with us the rest of the way. The walk itself wasn’t that entertaining, but it was an uphill/mountain walk, so there were a lot of beautiful lookouts on the way up. I managed to spot all of them before everyone else so I got a few good pics and then called everyone else over. The end of the walk is a WWII fort at the top of the mountain. We got to the top of it and just admired the amazing view for a while, and then headed back. We walked from the walking path toward the beach, but I stopped at Bungalow Bay for the Koala tour they had. This hostel has a wildlife tour that lets you touch and hold different wild animals. I got to pet a cockatoo and have it eat a sunflower out of my mouth, hold and kiss a crocodile, hold and pet a koala, and hold a snake. It was really cool! I have a bunch of photos! A koala doesn’t feel like I thought it would. I imagined it’d feel like a chinchilla but it was more like felt. It was a very chill koala too. It looked bored being passed between people. I was the last to hold it, so the guide wanted me to continue to hold it while she fed it the rest of the eucalyptus. Everyone only got to hold it for a minute while getting a photo taken, but I got to really enjoy it and watch it eat and check it out a little. Very awesome! While waiting for everyone else to hold the snake later I heard a loud bird above and looked up to see a huge white cockatoo. How freakin cool is that. There was this insane exotic bird just flying around above me. And looking at a tree close to that we saw another koala! Unreal! On the way out of the tour I could hear an insanely loud noise coming from the tree. It sounded like, and was, a shitload of lorikeets, a beautiful rainbow colored bird. The tree was pretty beautiful, but having it full of these gorgeous birds was unreal. I stood underneath for a few looking and taking photos until someone suggested that they might poo on me, so I moved. Dinner was with Claire, Nick, and Steph. We went back to Bungalow Bay because they had a band there. We walked down to the beach for a few, looked for the southern cross (still have yet to see it), had two desserts, then went back to the hostel to bed. I pretty much left straight away Monday morning after breakfast and more icecream. The weather this time around was much better so it was smooth. I read my book most of the way back and didn’t really talk to anyone. Nice weekend. I wish I could have done a dive, but I’m not in any huge rush. Hopefully the weather will stay decent and maybe I can do it back in Mission.