Magnetic Island and Whitsundays

So to continue the story of my travels. Devon and I had to fly out of the wet weather of Cairns to Townsville where were hopped a ferry to Magnetic Island and a crazy bus ride to our hostel. Finally arriving and the YHA Bungalow Bay hostel we were greeted by many nocturnal animals including Possums, insects, Wallabies by the pack, and snakes.

This particular snake is a tree snake and greeted us at the window from our bungalow. It was a noisy sleep with all of the wildlife about us but it was a very unique experience. This YHA is actually built upon a wildlife sanctuary which is the reason we encountered so many living things.

Going to the washroom was the insect exhibit where there were all different kinds of moths and bugs, here is a particular specimen that was very interesting, it appears to look like a autumn leaf but upon closer inspection I found out it was living.

There were many like this and made the trip to the washroom and whole new experience.

Our Hostel was particularly interesting because instead of the usual one building we were put into bungalows, hut like structures, that were all individually built around the property. The place kind of reminded me of summer camp.

You can see one of the bungalows at the end of this pathway.

I really enjoyed this place as it was very interesting, however due to the rain we weren't able to explore it very much and many of the animals weren't around. It had a good atmosphere and a friendly staff, I recommend the place if you are an animal lover.



After a couple nights there with no end of the rain in sight we decided to head off early to Airley Beach to start our Whitsunday adventures. We stayed at the YHA Airley beach before we left for our tour of the islands. This hostel had a good kitchen, en suites and a pool. It is a good place for all ages and a clean place to rest your head. We booked our Whitsunday islands tour and our Fraser Island tour through Peter Pans where we got a discount and cheep Internet!

We left the next day for our tour. We chose Tongarra as our boat which was a catamaran with two crew and seventeen passengers. The weather slowly cleared up throughout our trip. The boat didn't have enough beds indoors for us to sleep so we generally slept on the deck, however the first night was a rainy one so it wasn't the best night sleep for me as the tarp did drip and the sides (where I slept) was particularly wet. The second night was gorgeous and was a fantastic night (so check the weather forecast).

We went to many places in the Whitsunday islands and I won't go into it all but we had a blast. I have photographed our itinerary on a map so you can kind of see where we went.

Along the way we snorkeled twice seeing many fish and a turtle. It was great I really enjoyed it. The fish at one place were so thick they would touch you and there was one species of fish that was as big as my torso.

Below is a picture of our boat anchored out off the Whithaven beach.

At Whithaven beach we put on our stinger suits (suits that prevent jelly fish from stinging you and potentially really hurting you). These were to be worn everywhere in the Whitsundays and along the beaches they had seperated areas with nets to protect swimmers from jellys. Below you can see me in my stinger suit on the beach of Whitheaven. The rain was so bad while were were there it stung to have it hit your face directly. We enjoyed the high silica sand though (it can even exfoliate you) and saw sting rays and lemon sharks! It was great.

Here is a pic of Whitsunday beach from the look out spot. It is a beach that is over 7 km long with the most pure silica sand found on earth. It is like walking in silk.

We got the sails up a couple times and watched the sun set over the islands. I enjoyed the experience as we all got along well and the crew were very fun and friendly. It was a great boat for people ages 18 to early 30s.

I was excited to take the helm one morning too!!

In the end we had a great time and headed back to Airley Beach for another relaxing day and a over night trip to Hervey Bay (one of the main ports to Fraser Island). After we got back we decided to try a different hostel, we headed to Magnums. This place had a good atmosphere and free wireless Internet that we took shameless advantage of. The place offered a private room for $25 that also had it's own fridge too. The two downsides were that the dorm rooms didn't have lockers and the kitchen was small and had only hot plates that were slow to heat up. It was good for the couple of nights we stayed there.

As we work our way down the coast I am amazed that we are coming home for Easter within the month! I am excited to see my family and the bulk department at Thrifty Foods! Our Australian adventure is slowing coming to a close. I am sad but also looking forward to our tour of Western Europe that follows our visit home.

The next blog will be about our off road adventures on the biggest sand island in the world, Fraser Island, stay tuned!!!!