08/08/19 - 08/14/19 East coast part 5 (Magnetic Island, Cairns)

After Bowen, we decided it was time to visit an idyllic island on this coast, at least one that is smaller than the one we are already on. One that is easily reachable is Magnetic Island. It is located 8 km from the town of Townsville, from where we sailed over with Ponyo. The island is home to 2000 people, so it's not completely dead there, especially when you consider all the tourists. However, it's not high season, so the number of people was very pleasant. We stayed in our Airbnb apartment in Picnic Bay, which is actually the quietest bay on the island. The apartment was also only a stone's throw away from the sea. We spent 3 nights here.

The island was very beautiful, a mixture of dense forest with beautiful rock formations. Some cute little rock wallabies, a smaller wallaby species, live on some piles of rocks. Since they are often fed by people against the advice of conservationists, they are very trusting and let you get very close to them. They are definitely cute, especially the babies.

There is also a high density of wild koalas here, and after we had seen enough of the wallabies, we made our way to the place where the probability of seeing koalas is particularly high. It was a path that led to an old World War II military fort. Unfortunately, we didn't see any koalas, but the fortress was strategically located to get a beautiful view of the island and the sea.

After our walk, we wanted to explore the underwater world. We rented snorkeling equipment and drove to a beach at the other end of the 8 km long island. We were warned that the road there was 'a little dodgy', and after the potholes on the way became deeper and deeper, we gave up and left Ponyo by the roadside a little before the destination. During the snorkeling trip, we saw a few colorful fish, although not many, and only a few colorful corals, most of which were white and surrounded by algae. Still fun. Of course, the beautiful coastline itself was also worth seeing. In the evening, we visited a market that takes place every Friday in the 'community center'. The average age dropped significantly because of us, and we couldn't help but giggle at this funny market. But at least we got two delicious cheesecakes from the island-famous Vonnie.

The next day, we took it a bit slower. Schtä and Luki couldn't stand not seeing any koalas, so they went on a trip to the wildlife park, where there were even cuddle sessions with the fluffy animals. However, we are not very enthusiastic about such things, so we spent this time alone. In the afternoon, we sat by the sea while Schtä and Luki took a walk to a nearby viewpoint. When they returned, they told us about a koala they had seen in the forest! Now we couldn't stand not seeing one ourselves and decided to go on a short walk to find it. However, as we walked the path where it was supposed to be, we found nothing. So we started the way back a bit disappointed. But at the last moment, Mathias looked up into a treetop and there it was... quietly munching on eucalyptus and scratching its bum. So the walk was worth it after all!

The last leg of our journey with the four of us was to Cairns. Cairns is a medium-sized city in northern Queensland. It has an international airport and is considered the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. Because of this, it is the landing spot for many tourists and the starting point for many backpacker trips through the continent. Unfortunately, that's pretty much the only thing the city has to offer, because it's not really charming... although there is a more or less nice seaside promenade for walking and some delicious food can be found among countless tourist traps. Three nights seemed more than enough for us. Schtä, who was determined to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, treated herself to a tour. The two of us and Luki didn't feel like it for various reasons and went on a day trip to the jungle village of Kuranda instead. We and a million others on that day. Here we took a short rainforest walk and visited a beautiful butterfly park.

For our last joint meal, we had dumplings once again before our paths separated the next day... for us to continue to Daintree and for our 5-week travel companions to return to Austria. Thank you both for being there. It was amazing!!