OzExperience – Maggie Island & Northern Queensland

On Sunday morning (May 30th), our journey continued up north the coast of Australia to Townsville, from where we caught a ferry to Magnetic Island. Or like the locals say ‘Maggie Island’.  But this was unfortunately, not without the necessary ‘excitement’ as for some reason our bus driver forgot to pick us up in Airlie Beach. Apparently he didn’t see us and just drove past our hostel leaving us stranded. When we contacted the OzEx office they told us that they couldn’t reach the driver and most probably we would have to stay until the next day, to catch the next bus. As we were on a tight schedule and accommodation booked, we booked ourselves on another bus that morning to Townsville in the hope we who get this refunded. At the end we did, which was great. Once in Townsville, it was around 20 minutes by ferry to Magnetic Island. The island isn’t really big and within 5 minutes we were at our hostel from the ferry terminal by bus. Our hostel was at the water which gave a magnificent view but you couldn’t really swim there as there was no beach. We stayed in a room that overlooked the water and Townsville. We were recommended to stay at this hostel as this had the best atmosphere at night. As there wasn’t much to do, and with little traffic on the island, we decided to rent a car to drive around and explore the island. We got one of these topless little cars that looked more like a toy than a car. It was good fun to cruise around with it. Especially as both of us had never driven on the left side before. We visited the different beaches and after seeing many wallabies, we got a good impression of the island. We had the car for one full day which was convenient, so that we could drive ourselves the next day to the ferry terminal and bring the car back to the car rental, which was located next to the terminal.  So, the next morning when all the other OzEx bus passengers were making their way to the bus stop, we could just relax as we had a car to take us to the terminal. The only problem was that once in the car, ready to leave the car battery had past away. So, there we were sitting in the car looking at each other wondering what now. You can imagine that it looked quite funny (embarrassing) from the bus stop where all the other OzEx passengers where standing waiting for there bus, and we were outside the car with the hood open wondering why it would not start ;-) Luckily, the car rental they were helpful enough to come and pick us up, and take us to the terminal in time. As soon as we got to Townsville, the OzEx driver got in the bus and picked us up for our next stop, Mission Beach.

Mission Beach again was not a big place, but has quite some activities you can do there. The highlight is the Skydive over the beach, where you get to land on the beach. At first I was excited to go for this, but after reconsidering I didn’t as it was not cheap and I already had done skydiving. Pretty much we just took it easy there relaxed, walked along the beach and had our own prepared BBQ, which was great. Meat comes so cheap in Oz ;-) After Mission Beach it was time for Cairns and Cape Tribulation where we would spend a couple of days prior to leaving Australia. On the way, the bus driver stopped at crocodile farm where they had some huge crocodiles. It’s a shame we forgot our camera and missed the opportunity to capture some amazing creatures on film. The star of the farm was Gregory who weights almost a ton, yes a 1,000 kg. He was huge. We experienced when he got fed a mouse, and before he could get it he had top move around and work for his food. The sound of him clapping his jaw was astonishing. You could definitely hear the enormous pressure crocs have in their jaws. Off course, for the mouse it was a bit of sad end. While I was enjoying the croc, Marylou was feeling sad for the mouse.:-)

Later that night we arrived in Cairns. You could immediately feel the atmosphere there with a lot of travellers. Here is where I got upset with our travel agent, for not advising us on leaving Australia from Cairns. We were under the impression that there were no flights out of Cairns to Japan, hence we booked our flight out of Brisbane. When cruising around Cairns we noticed advertisement everywhere with ‘JAPAN, 4 flights a day out of Cairns!’ K

First we stayed there for 2 days prior to leave for our 3 day/2 night trip to Cape Tribulation, and afterwards another 2 days, before we left for Brisbane again. One thing that struck us there was that during the day, the water would dry up on the shore and at night it would fill up again. This was quite odd to see. All over Oz we saw the opposite of this. This doesn’t really matter though as Cairns has a great lagoon where you can go for a swim. Even with beach sand in it. After 2 days we left Cairns and visited first Port Douglas and the Mossman gorge. Here we went for a walk through the forest. This was a great walk and we learned a bit about aboriginals and the different plants. Especially the one you shouldn’t walk into as you would be itchy for a long time. To refresh ourselves after this walk, we stopped at a lake where some went for a swim. Later it was time for lunch and a river cruise over the Daintree River, where we spotted some crocodiles living in the wild. It was a nice ride but not too exciting; I was expecting some more action like a crocodile biting our boat or something ;-). Later we carried on to Cape Tribulation where we spent the next 2 nights. On our second day the tour took us on a boat to the Great Barrier Reef. On the beach, next to the actual Cape Tribulation itself you could see where two World Heritage sites meet each other, the rain forest and the Great Barrier Reef. Apparently this is the only place in the world where you can see this. On the boat we were offered to go either snorkelling or diving. Marilou went snorkelling and I signed up for an intro dive which was awesome. The dive was so great that I went a second time. I really loved this and it made to me the highlight our trip in Oz. We visited different sites where we could snorkel/dive. We saw some amazing big turtles and during my second dive I even saw a shark which was around 3 to 4 feet. We had a great day that day. On our last day there we explored the area by foot. It was indeed a very interesting area and I can see why it’s a world heritage listed site

Once back in Cairns, we were up for our next challenge…our complimentary AJ Hackett Bungy tandem jump. This was my leaving gift from my colleagues at ABN. This was absolutely a great gift. The AJ Hackett site in Cairns is in the middle of the jungle at 50 meters high with a very nice view of Cairns and the ocean from the top. Even though, I already had jumped in New Zealand at the Canyon swing, this was different and I have to admit to being a bit anxious. Not to mention how Marilou was feeling about this. Once up there, there was no way back and by applying my ‘don’t-think-just-jump’- formula, we had a great jump and are glad we did so. To me this is definitely something I’ll like to do again in the future; Marilou rather keeps this as a one time only occasionJ.

This jump kind of concluded our Oz experience trip. From Cairns we flew back to Brisbane in order for us to catch our next flight on our world tour, Tokyo – Japan. Our last day in Oz, (Brisbane) wasn’t a really exciting one. We took this day to organise our Japan trip. Although at night we had some exciting dinner at an Irish pub. The special of the day was beef stew in Guinness. Very tasty!

After 6 weeks in Australia, we can say that we had a very nice Oz Experience. Even though due to lack of time we did not get to do Melbourne and Uluru, which is a shame. The east coast was definitely good fun and we met some nice people along the way. It was a trip with ups and downs; especially accommodation wise. (Marilou can definitely elaborate on that more in detail if required ;-) We experienced Aussies as very relaxed and enjoyed a lot of their Aussie beef and wine.