Magnetic Island

To break up our bus ride from Airlie Beach to Cairns we decided to do a stop in Magnetic Island. When we first arrived, we were a little confused, having no idea why we had decided to stop here. Its basically a small island off the coast of Australia that is really quiet, had a really small hostel, and was extremely hot. After trekking for about a mile to find some place that would serve lunch, we met up with one of our friends, Neils, who we met in the Whitsunday Islands. He had done some reading and suggested we rent a "Moki" (really small car with no doors) and drive around the island.

At 9am we headed off for our adventure with 2 more of Neils friends following in another car. Our frist stop was to take a 2 hour walk where we were supposed to get great views and see koalas right on the path. Of course, because we are cursed when it comes to seeing wildlife, we saw no kaolas, and compared to the really hot, not so great hike, the views were only ok. So that part of the adventure done, we decided to head to the waterfall we had heard about. When we walked there it turned out to only be a small creek, but at least it was somewhere to cool off. Next we headed to a little beach on the north side of the island where we hung out for a few hours and got lunch. After a while the other 2 with us decided it was time to return their car. Since we couldn't all fit in the car on the way back we decided to get dropped off at the hike again to see if we could see any koalas later in the afternoon....of course no suck luck. While we were waiting for the others to come back and pick us up we found our car had broken down a ways down the road and we had to walk to it and wait for a new car! (so far not sounding so good...but so far it was a good laugh and still fun!) After getting into a new and working car we decided to try the waterfall again because we must have gone to the wrong spot. Sure enough we found the right waterfall and practiced swinging off the rope swing into the pool of water below. One our way to the next stop, Nelis decided it was time for the two of us to learn to drive a manual car. So after 5 minutes of lessions we both gave it a go. Verdict is....we don't suck! We made in a few kilometers down the road successfully with no accidents! It was really exciting! Our next stop was to see the wallabees (mini kangaroos). When we got there, expecting not to see anything, there were wallabees everywhere! They were the cutest things we have ever seen. There was a guy there, who knew a lot about the place, that gave us all a little bit of food to feed them. They would come right up to your hand and place their little hands on your fingertips and eat right out of your palm. It as precious and we wanted to take them all home with us! Just this part of the day alone made up for the kind of awful hike, breaking down car, and lack of koalas. We were so excited to get to pet and feed them it was unbelievable! Conclusion: Great Adventure!