I know it’s stereotypically British to talk about the weather but that’s the first thing that needs to be mentioned in a blogpost about the tropics. We don’t mind the rain in the UK, I know we complain about it a lot but it’s really very good rain in comparison to the downpours you get in the far North Queensland.
I mean hot rain, who wants it?!? You get soaked, then it’s so humid that nothing dries and everything stays damp. On top of that you can’t open any windows because it’s pouring outside and it’s stifling.
We did think that the dry season was on its way when we were in Mareeba with nice days and cooler nights but as we journeyed north to Cook Town to visit Anne and Jim’s son Adam and his family, we caught up with the wet and took the rain along with us.
Adam and Jackie kindly put us up for the ANZAC weekend so we had three days of exploring. Cook Town is remote, windy and wonderful. On the day we arrived, we (led by Adam’s three year old son Sean) walked to two of CT’s beaches and up to Grassy Hill which looks out over the Endeavour River and walked down the other side to a glorious sunset. The town might not have a large population, a major supermarket or first class 3G signal but the sunsets are amazing.
Townsville is the biggest city in Northern Queensland, bigger than Cairns in fact although it’s not as well known. And generally we preferred Townsville, it was just a bit less humid and has some very pretty areas. While we were in Townsville we ventured to the top of Castle Hill and looked over the city towards Magnetic Island which was stunning.
Just as a side note (if anyone comes out to Australia) free wifi can be found in any major city centre, large shopping mall or leisure facility. Cities and large towns also often have free swimming pools and showers, Townsville has two free swimming pools, one has a 75 metre lane and an infinity pool where you look over into the river where lots of fresh water turtles live. No wonder Australia has the second best quality of life in the world eh? I wish my tax went towards free wifi and swimming pools!
We stayed around Townsville for about a week, visiting the city centre as well as little creeks and swimming holes in the surrounding hills and then we headed off to Magnetic Island.
We went to Magnetic Island hunting the reef. Florence and Arthur Bay, on the north side of the island, are part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine National Park but unfortunately when we arrived (probably because of the rain that keeps following us) the visibility was quite poor and a lot of the coral had been bleached. But we did manage to have a good snorkelling session in Alma Bay and saw lots of fish and beautiful coral!
We stayed at Bungalow Bay Koala Village and made friends with all of the local wildlife. Our favourite campsite animal was Lol, the rainbow Lorrikeet who came to sit in us but a close second was Kev the koala who slept a few trees away from us. There was also a pet chicken and a possum who came to the van at 8pm prompt every night.
But by far the best animals on Magnetic Island are the rock wallabies who live at Geoffrey Bay because …. Look how cute they are!
We have them sweet potato and they were so happy about it! I don’t think I’d be that happy for a potato, however sweet it was.
As well as amazing animals the views on Maggie aren’t too bad either.
From the WW2 fort you can see all the way up the coast line to Hinchbrook island and back over to Townsville on a clear day – which is luckily what we got!
And so we finished our time on Magnetic Island in beautiful weather having finally ditched the rain.
Once we’d landed back in the mainland we started to head north again towards Cairns; in time to pick up my friend Elise who we were making the rest of the East Coast trip with us!
Around the world in 365 days 