Magnetic Island & Townsville

View of Magnetic Island from Castle Hill, Townsville
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When the roads out of Airlie finally cleared I decided to get the bus up to Townsville and then get the ferry across to Magnetic Island to spend a few days up there. As it turned out it was good that I hadn't planned to go straight to Cairns as there had been more flooding North of Townsville and the roads from there to Cairns where still cut off so had lots of anxious people on the bus worried about missing flights and the like. From the Ferry Terminal in Townsville was a short ride on the Ferry only 25 mins or so and from there I got a bus which took me to Base Backpackers where I'd booked for 2 nights. Not many people where staying at the hostel and with the continued rain wasn't a whole lot to do there! Saying that I did meet some really nice people at the hostel and had a fun time there despite the shocking weather! Was good fun although ended up drinking bit too much as started drinking with my dinner at 6 each night-certainly helped past the time! The worse bit of being stuck on Magnetic Island in the rain was the Mosquitos which were eating everyone alive, have never had so many bites in my life! The powercut we had wasn't too much fun either especially as took lifeline of internet out and didn't come back even when the power did, wasn't happy!

Keeping ourselves occupied on Maggy Island in the rain!
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After two nights on the Island decided to head back to Townsville. I was very lucky to be able to stay with my sis Jen's friends there Mia and Paul and had really good few days with them. Before they picked me up I had some time to explore while they were at work and as weather was so bad decided to do indoors stuff so went to the Museum of Tropical Queensland and the Reef HQ both of which were very interesting and nice refuge from the rain! Mia and Paul picked me up in the evening and then they took me out for a fantastic meal and we all got through fair bit of wine too, think both of them were tad hungover for work the next day! It was really nice being able to relax and watch DVDs etc so did fair bit of chilling especially at first but as weather got better explored more around Townsville. I had a nice walk along the Strand and also walked up Castle Hill which gave some great views but bit on challenging side as pretty steep, prob wasn't the best idea to wear flip flops! After the walk was v hot so to cool down made use of the nice communal pool which had to myself which was great! Had originally only planned staying the one night in Townsville but was glad that had the extra time as really liked the city and saw much more that would have otherwise, as was v lucky to be so well looked after too!