Magnetic Island – Life Inverted

I know that not every place that I go, I will like or that it will be what I expect it to be. I had planned my longest stay in Australia to be in Cairns; lying on the beach, playing in the water and learning to surf. Well Cairns proper was kind of a let down from day one. Somehow in all the research that I had done previously, I had somehow missed that Cairns has no beaches!

HOW COULD I HAVE MISSED THAT!?!

I still have no idea, it boggles my mind honestly. On top of that, all the beaches that do exist along the coast, you can’t go into. They have killer Box and Yirangkangi Jellyfish and man-eating saltwater crocodiles. Seriously, two people were eaten/attacked by crocs while I was there.

So other than the GBR, the rainforest, some waterfall hunting, and chilling at the lagoon, I literally had NOTHING to do.

SO I decided to head down the coast and see what mischievous I could get into myself. My first stop was Mission Beach. Again, I expected a bustling beach city with some really nice beaches. Instead I got a town that didn’t even have a stoplight with beautiful, albeit Jelly-infested, beaches. I decided to embrace the anti-hubbub and I just chilled out for two days in my hotel.

This hotel though was an oasis that looked out on the rainforest where I listened to the noisy chattering of the animals as I fell asleep. Both nights I was there they had storms in the evenings and it was just crazy to listen to the rain in the rainforest and all the animals talking to each other. Sometimes I still can’t believe that I’m here, it’s so mesmerizing!

The third day I got up and headed down to Townsville. It was about a two and a half hour scenic drive between mountains, patches of rainforest and sugar cane fields. I had decided that if there was a close waterfall or hike along the way then I was going to go exploring. About half way down I pulled off at what looked like a rest stop entrance but ended up being a scenic lookout over the rainforest and Hitchenbrock Island.

I have now found my most favorite view in the world. I swear, to me, none other compares! It had been raining on and off the entire trip, so you had this view of an island-Mountain covered in clouds and mist in the background and a river splitting this island from the mainland but also splitting two sections of rainforest. You had everything that is Australian in this view. It was about a 300-foot walk up to this view and I just decided to sit here and relax with this view for a bit. It was so peaceful, no electronics, no distractions, just pure rainforest. The longer I sat there in silence, the louder the animals got. They can be downright noisy at times but it was beautiful! What I wouldn’t do to just stay in this place forever.

…And then God had other plans and it started raining. It doesn’t just rain in the rainforest, it downpours. You have a good three minute warming before the deluge of water erupts from the sky. I made it back to my car just in time to avoid getting a second bath for the day. Rain, one of the many reasons trying to do your hard in Australia is just downright impossible!

I finally made it to Townsville and decided it was late enough that I was going to relax in my room and figure out the next few days.

That next morning I got up and headed toward the ferry that would take me to Magnetic Island, fondly known as Maggie, although I wanted to call it Magneto Island the whole time. It was still drizzling when I made it to Magnetic Island but I managed to hitch a ride while waiting for the bus. My hostel wasn’t far away, maybe a mile, but I wasn’t in the mood to walk in the rain, plus my bag wasn’t waterproof.

After a quick rain shower, the clouds went away, the humidity returned and it was nice and sunny again. I decided to go for one of the short hikes that was close to my hostel. I never managed to find the hike though and instead walked along the beach to a point called Rock Wallaby Point. Hence the name, there were a ton of rock wallabies.

Baby kangaroos that you just want to snatch up and take home with you. One of the gentleman who was also at the point gave me some seed to feed them with, which they devoured! The one I was feeding looked kinda weird though. It had an extra set of paw coming out of its stomach that was pointed the wrong way. I felt kinda bad for it until a tiny head poked out next to the feet. It was a baby in the pouch and it was ADORABLE! I actually got to pet the little wallaby head and he was so soft! Can I keep one mom!?! I promise he will love playing with Fenway!

There was also some cute birds that hung out at the hostel and chilled with me.

That night I met some friends in the hostel, Sam, Jacy and another dude, whose name I don’t remember, we will call him Dilbert. {{ You knows those people who are all intense about something and God forbid someone mention not doing something his way he will pout about it, yeah that was him. I wasn’t a fan, he was nice and everything but yeah no. }} After a few rounds of pool, we all decided to go hiking together the next morning.

So early that next morning we got up to try to beat the heat and climb up to the Forts. The Forts is an old lookout station build during WWII that is still around. Dilbert and Jacy graciously enough kept taking turns doing spider web removal duty. Yeah Sam and I wanted NOTHING to do with that, we both became sissy ninjas every time we walked into one.

Sam and Jacy were from Vancouver, Canada and it was fun to be able to talk about the Whidbey/Vancouver area with them. Sam and I might as well have been the respective male/female versions of our personality. Both had the same love of flying, same addition to Coke (specifically McDonalds Coke if you can believe that), same fears and same likes, same personality quirks and everything. Jacy got a kick out of us. We stopped at a few lookouts along the way and finally make it up to the Forts Towers and what a view it was. Sam and I climbed through these lookout holes on the tower to sit on the roof for a better view! You could see almost all the island from this point. It was just spectacular! Then it was time to head back down to the other side of the island for lunch and a quick swim in the water. I let Jacy and Sam continue hiking for a few more hours while I went back and took a nap.

Once they got back we took a swim out from the beach in our hostel. Apparently there was a schooner submerged about four meters underwater and an old WWII propeller. It was easier to walk to Wallaby Rock point and climb in from there. Then we snorkeled out to the buoys that marked the reefs and the shipwreck. The previous nights storm has stirred up some of the water though and you couldn’t really see much, it made it kinda eerie! All of a sudden we swam into the bow of the schooner sticking up from the depth but you couldn’t see anything else. It kinda just got the hairs on the back of my neck crawling to not be able to see it all. We tried to find the propeller but no such luck. Maybe another time. Plus, after diving the GBR all other coral is just kinda meh! It was still a good time though. Sam, Jacy, and I shared an amazing fish and chips dinner with a pitcher of Coke that night, we deserved it after all the hiking and snorkeling we did!

Its amazing how many nice, sweet people you meet traveling. I never feel like I am alone because I am always finding other people who want to do similar things. It’s also crazy how quickly you become instant best friends for a few days. Sam and Jacy had a lot of great stories from their adventures and hopefully we will be able to meet up again in Bali. Just like the Navy is a small world, so is the traveling community. You end up running into the same people over and over again. Sam and Jacy are two individuals who I wouldn’t mind running into again. Good luck on the rest of your journeys you guys!

Here are a few random pics from the rest of the Cairns trip. This was on a hike up to Jourama Falls. It was dry season so a lot of the falls were smaller than normal.