Sunshiny beaches...and islands ......aaahhhhh!

Sun 6 Aug - Thurs 10 Aug

So pleased we didn't even attempt to plan much of the part of the trip! The options to seek out and explore are endless and so we stuck to the criteria...lots of beach fun, short days and yep more fun and sunshine!

Our last day at Mission Beach was a little drizzly and so off to the markets we went! Sun came out later in the arvo so we soaked up as much of the beach and sunshine as we could. Hilariously after arriving for a morning tea spot and leaving 4 nights later Mission Beach certainly provided a stunning place to stay as well as a little village town that was great at looking after tourists in an incredibly non-touristy way. Lovely and easy going, low key and plenty of wide open spaces to explore.

Sunset Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Island

And off south we headed again, with our slow meandering travels towards New South Wales. Townsville was next on our radar (and possible more so Magnetic Island 8km from the coast of Townsille).  

View towards Hinchinbrook Island near Cardwell

Reef HQ in Townsville

We spent an afternoon at the Reef HQ which was awash with a bazillion different types of fish, jellyfish, octopus, starfishes and little sharks. It was a really enjoyable few hours with loads of volunteers who help out and have incredible information on all sorts of sea life to share. The above pic showed a little of what our reef trip was like the only thing I'd say is that the colours weren't quite as vibrant as it was a slightly overcast day. 

Jellyfish at Reef HQ.......

The sea creatures are so mesmerising and all have such an intricate role to play in the ocean ecosystem. The kids so enjoyed being able to get up close to so many of them and watch them...the only mistake we made was not putting the camper up first at the where we were staying as it was damp still from Mission and with an early dew rolling in made for a somewhat drippy night under clear skies hilariously !! 

Magnetic Island - people ooh and aaah at the sound of the name !! Out of interest Captain Cook named here after his compass seemed to go out of whack, or more scientifically it appeared to have a magnetic effect on his compass! Prior to this is was known as Yunbenun by the Wulgarukaba people. As for the local yocals it's known to them as Maggie Island - I like it ! Such a fun action packed not quite 24 hours on Maggie. 

Jet ski fun on Magnetic Island!

Ok better watch these Greens.....

The boys !! 

After landing at Nelly Bay the beautiful Lisa Dunn, (a fellow Certified Lifeline Practitioner) picked us up and showed us to our 3 bedroom apartment overlooking the bay that Trev and her were gifting us for the night !! Seriously wow and big! This was only the second night we'd had under solid walls since we left home. So incredibly generous and divine ! However, we didn't get to hang out there for too long as we had a bucket load to explore in a short period of time. We soon found out that Maggie Island - has loads of little drives, nooks and crannies to explore as well as heaps of walking tracks that we wouldn't get done this trip !

There was a little bit of jet ski action as the troops shared a time slot whilst I was obviously the official photographer....it was great fun watching them whizz around and hear about the engine capacity and technical details from the big fella and in between I could just stand on the beach in mostly silence with a little bit of chit chat quietly whizzing round in my head. Such a stunning place. Jet skiing was at Horseshoe Bay and then we moseyed around to Alma Bay for a beautiful swim, so warm and clear with not too many people about. 

Horseshoe Bay - so stunning.....

Little bit of silhouette dab !

Thanks to Trev for taking this pic xx 

The gorgeous Lisa Dunn xx 

Lis also shared with us her car so we could get our way around the Island - doesn't get any better than that ! We caught up with Lis and her husband Trev at Horseshoe Bay for sundowners and then dinner at there place. I did remember Lis sharing with me in Adelaide when we were talking houses that they had converted a Pineapple packing shed and us the Shearing Shed...same same but different ! It was almost like walking into a smaller version of home, just fabulous !! So we had a wonderful night of pizzas and beers, plus the kids had the added novelty of watching a DVD - they picked Mr Bean's Holiday ...everyone was happy !! The only interruption was the Koalas making their drop-bear-type bellow which is kinda a mix between a wild boar and a donkey up in the Gum trees outside - so very loud and such tiny little Koala bears!! As one friend via FB said 'Geez it just gets better and better' and so it has and I was so grateful for the opportunity to not only see Magnetic Island, but to also catch up with Lis and finally meet Trev. 

Scallywags Cafe for Breaky - all dressed as Pirates ;) 

Top floor of this front building was our apartment for the night on Magnetic Island

A whirlwind time on Maggie with a great breaky at Scallywags Cafe before we hopped on the ferry back to Townsville, hoping the car and camper would all be in one piece with no ticket - yee haa we were all good there! A novel thing at Scallywags Cafe was the tables were loads of Dr. Seuss kids books with pages ripped out and layered on the tables then lacquered so you could read different pages of different books whilst waiting for the yummos to arrive ! It was also reassuring given that we were on an island after all that indeed we were served by pirates in the appropriate dress !! Such good fun!! Heartfelt thanks to Lis and Trev for gifting us such a timely and fabulous overnight stay in their apartment at 12A The Terrace, Nelly Bay...if you're planning on going to Maggie Island it's in an awesome spot and so worth staying at !! 

https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/9413259 

Our next couple of nights we had at Airlie Beach where it was so visible on the hillsides to see where the Cyclone had ripped through in March of this year. The kids loved the Big 4 at Airlie Beach as it had a big kids heated pool waterpark and a few other kids to hang out with. Otherwise Airlie Beach was incredibly touristy and the place to go for Backpackers with 3 nightclubs up the main strip! So moving on from here was very easy as headed into the final week of our travels. 

Airlie Beach

Landslide on side of the mountain