Beginning my journey down the East Coast.. Mission Beach - Magnetic Island - Airlie Beach

Fri 17th Oct

Today I am checking out of The Jack, leaving Cairns via the Greyhound Bus down to Mission Beach...the beginning of my journey down the east coast. I meet up with Dan in the morning, who will also be taking the same route, and after goodbyes to Jonny, Lil and Ali we head down to the pick up point. The bus takes a couple of hours and after arriving I head off in the shuttle bus to The Jackaroo (my hostel for the next two nights..where I'll be seeing my childhood friend Sarah-Jayne for the first time in a long time..10years??). Dan has a short walk to his hostel, where as The Jackaroo is situated further around the coast and up in amongst the rainforest. . the view out to the sea/coastal line is awesome. Tonight is 'free wine night'! A great time spent catching up with SJ and I also share a dorm with 3 Swedish guys who I had also met at The Jack.

Sat 18th Oct

At midday I take the shuttle bus down to Mission Beach where I chill out, swim, read and sleep some more! Dan makes the long walk from the other end of the beach to meet up and we have a beer. We lose track of the time and head to the shuttle pick up a couple minutes late..after a 15min wait we soon realise with missed the chance to get a lift back to where Dan had walked from. After a poor attempt at getting a hitch hike/lift from other cars we set off on the walk back... '20 min journey'... ends up taking 45mins but we're not complaining.. Sandy empty beach, blue skies, and clear water.. At Dan's hostel we eat and have a beer.. and play a game of pool (terrible game.. awful cues..) I then head back to my Jackaroo on the minibus for a chilled out film night.. (and listen to a disappointing 4-1 Spurs defeat to Man City..), the owner spots and shows us a Australian Green Tree Frog on the side of one of the hostel walls. 

Sun 19th Oct

Today me and Dan leave Mission Beach, we take the Greyhound bus to Townsville where we are dropped at the ferry port..after a 20min ferry across a very choppy sea we arrive on Magnetic Island, our next destination for two nights. This time me and Dan are at the same hostel, Base, also Spencer, an English guy who had been at The Jackaroo, is also staying at the same hostel. The hostel is on the sea front, with great views from the bar, pool and our dorm. After stocking up on supplies for snacks/lunch/dinner we are back at the hostel drinking and playing some free pool (..no change in the quality though.. we are both playing some shocking shots!). Our 'free' dinner included in a two night hostel deal is an underwhelming burger after close to an hour's wait! I buy internet and skype family.

Mon 20th Oct

After our 'free' McMuffin (included in our deal) we wait around to say bye to ST (a German girl me and Spencer had met back at The Jackaroo)..which ends up in me, Dan and Spencer taking the same bus around the small island to Horseshoe Bay. We chill out, eat lunch and have a midday beer..refreshment needed in this hot and sunny weather! From Horseshoe Bay we take the walking trek (..not so flip flop friendly hilly route...) to Radical Bay. The beach/bay here is beautiful and close to empty. After a swim to cool off I record a message for my old form class last year. We then walk to Florence Bay, a route on the road and even more hilly.. A tiring walk! It's worth the struggle when Spencer spots a wild Koala in a tree close by to the road.. a highlight! Our long afternoon trek ends soon after seeing the view of Arthur Bay which is beautiful. We take the bus to Arcadia where we see wild wallabies. In the evening back at the hostel after a tasty kitchen cooked egg fried rice there is a quiz night. Me and Dan get separated from our other mates team but are soon part of a team with new people.. Hannah, Lisa, Luke and Laurie...and unexpectedly come 2nd = 3 free jugs! Happy days. .we are soon celebrating and dancing on the tables. 

Tues 21st Oct

After a fun night we slowly get up.. cook eggs on toast, check out and then take the bus to the harbour and walk straight onto the ferry back to Townsville (a smaller ferry and less choppy ride). After eating some prepared sandwiches we head to the Aquarium (the world's largest living coral reef aquarium..). This has jokingly yet seriously been an attraction me and Dan have spoken about visiting during our time on Magnetic Island to everyone we came across. My teacher discount gets a concession price and we spend time wandering around seeing the variety of fish and coral. During our visit we see two divers in the tank with a net scooping up what looks like small baby fish and feeding them to the surrounding fish. On enquiring as to what is happening we find out that these particular fish (black/white) have been breeding so successfully (looking after/protecting their offspring) that the success has led to a large rise in their population in the tanks... on further inspection we notice the vast number of these fish in the tanks! 

We leave the aquarium, walk around town, pick up supplies for the bus journey and are soon boarding and departing to Airlie Beach our next destination .. a five hour journey.

We arrive in Airlie Beach at 7pm and are greeted by a member of staff at Magnums (our hostel) who leads us on the short walk up to the main strip and the location of the hostel. With Dan's voucher we both get 3 nights for 55 dollars.. best price yet. We eat and drink in the hostel before heading out to see the different bars/clubs. Everywhere is empty so we are soon heading back to our dorm.. it seems like nothing gets busy till a lot later in the evening! 

Weds 22nd Oct

Our 6 dorm mates all check out in the morning and soon we are introducing ourselves to new dorm mates (.. what's your name.. where are you from.. how long are travelling.. how old are you.. etc!) We meet three Swedish girls Matilda, Emily and Joanna, then later 3 French travellers Thomas, Coralie and Gillian. In the afternoon Dan buys the new GoPro 4 after finding out that it is in stock here, we spend the afternoon chilling out. The French group are keen for a drink and night out, so we go again for food and a few jugs of beer then decide on a night of wine.. 3 bottles later we are ready for a night out.. the French group end up going to bed early.. let downs but we find others from the dorm next door to head out/drink with. 

Thurs 23rd Oct

After a heavy night we are up late for a brunch, then decide to get our act together and head out to explore more of the area and go to the lagoon during the afternoon. In the evening we cook fajitas.. definitely the best meal for a long long time.. Earlier in Woolworths as we are getting the food for the meal we bump into Hannah and Lisa from the quiz night at Magnetic Island and soon after Luke as well who I find out is also going on my Whitsunday boat, Apollo! Finally I've met someone else on my boat as the last three days no one has either been on or mention Apollo. We stock up on some alcohol in the bottle shop and after packing later in the evening I am all set and ready for my three day/two night sailing boat trip!