We stayed in Arcadia beach guest house in Arcadia bay on Magnetic Island in two tents. The tents were more glamping than camping though as it was basically a four man tent inside an almost shed with two walls and a roof. Inside there was two fans, a double bed and a lamp so it wasn't bad.
We arrived to the hostel at about 4.30 and we headed over to the end of the bay where there is a pier where you can see some friendly but wild rock wallabies at dusk. The wallabies were tiny, smaller than the ones we saw in Cairns and they were much closer to us, there was even some people feeding them. I was a bit jealous.
After we had watched the wallabies for a while we went to a local pub for dinner (treating ourselves because we're all missing eating out three times a day). I had mackerel and chips, Amy had a fish sandwich and chips, Kate had calamari rings and Becki had a chicken parmi. The food was good, but it was all a bit tense as there was a bird with a massive head that was eyeing up all the food. The people on the table behind us left some chips and it swooped so fast. Very nervy but its safe to say it wasn't going to get any of my chips without a fight.
When we got back to the hostel there was an Australian girl watching Neighbours which we all found very exciting, so we watched it with her and then spent the rest of the evening watching a bit of tv and reading in bed. The TV here is very similar to at home it seems, there are Australian versions of loads of our tv programmes (like first dates, the chase and some others) but there are adverts every 5 minutes that seem to last as long as each segment of tv which is very irritating.
One of the reasons Becki had been so excited about Australia was for Magnetic Island. This is because on Magnetic Island you can hire your very own Barbie Car. They're tiny white jeeps with pink trim and wheels. She was therefore very excited the next morning. So excited she ended up breaking her phone. The car cost $101 to rent for the whole day, petrol and insurance with one driver.
We spent the day driving up and down the island stopping at various sights in our barbie car and as the island is only 8km in length so it didn't take long.
Our first stop was at Bungalow Bay which is a hostel / campsite which houses several reptiles, birds and (most excitingly) some koalas. We had a tour of the place which involved feeding a cockatoo some seed from our mouths, holding lizards, baby crocodiles and a python and having a cuddle from a Koala called Pebbles. Pebbles was so cute, she was three years old and she was so soft, I want to bring her home with me.
After the tour it was lunch time so we headed to the supermarket, made some lunch and took it to picnic bay. It was basically just a beach with a jetty, not sure why its called picnic bay but it was as nice as any to sit and have lunch in.
After a drink at a cafe, we headed out for a 2km walk to some forts that were used in WW2. The walk was lovely as the views were phenomenal and we spotted a wild baby koala. It was so cute. Because it was evening, the sky was beautiful and the temperature had cooled so it was a perfect temperature for a walk.
We headed back to the hostel for dinner, dropped the car off and then walked up the road to a pub that hosts toad races every Wednesday. This was a little bizarre but quite funny. They have seven toads which they hold in the centre of a circle in a plastic container, and the first to hop its way out of the circle wins. One by one the toads are bid on and whoever bids the highest on the winning toad gets the prize money. We stayed for one race and a little girl who had been desperate to win a toad won so she was very happy, not so happy when she was made to kiss the toad to collect the winnings. After the race we headed back to the hostel, watched some tv (we missed Neighbours sadly) and went to bed.
We were booked onto the 12.15 ferry so the next day we left our tents at half 11. The ferry took about 20 minutes and our bus was at 2.15 so it was a day full of waiting around really. I'm currently on the bus to Airlie Beach and it is due to arrive there at 6.40, so a day full of travel. Lots of love, Martha.
