Magnetic Island and the Koala Sanctuary

The best part of Townsville wasn’t in Townsville; it was 20 mins away on Magnetic Island.  It’s a small island (roughly the same square mileage as Bermuda) with one road that links three small towns and only a few hundred residents.  The ferry runs from Townsville every hour and the island’s primary revenue is from tourists who come over to see koalas and snorkel.  The YHA we stayed at in Horseshoe Bay was home to the Bungalow Bay Koala Sanctuary so we were able to interact with the koalas on several occasions AND we saw three of them in the wild while we were hiking – it was awesome!

The YHA was one of the most rustic accommodations I’ve stayed in since I went to summer camp back in middle school.  Our room was in a small wooden A-frame building big enough for a double bed (I use the term bed lightly considering it was basically a mattress on the floor) with a little deck on the front.  Fortunately, our room was located pretty close to the restroom/shower building because when you went out at night you could hear all the critters scampering across the courtyard.  Less fortunately, the building didn’t have doors or windows so it was crawling with bugs, moths and spiders.  I mentioned this was rustic, right?  Even the reception area and bar were just outdoor patios with a corrugated metal roof.  It sounds worse than it was and we actually had a blast at this place but here are the photos to prove I was not exaggerating about the room…

Our first day there was still slightly cloudy and chilly so we decided to go hiking and explore the island.  At our YHA, we were told we could feed the wild rock wallabies (basically small kangaroos) and given food pellets so we hiked a few miles over to Arcadia to check them out.  They were SO cute and literally ate out of your hand.  When Alex was feeding them, one of the smaller ones reached up gently and pulled his hand down to make the food more accessible – they were that unafraid of people.  Apparently there is an unusually large concentration of them on the island because of the regular feedings they get from tourists, as was evidenced by the dozen or so that showed up in the short time we were there.

That night we joined our fellow travelers in the bar for a fun game of trivia.  We didn’t win but we put up a valiant effort (Aussie songs were our undoing) and placed in the middle of the pack despite having the smallest team.  We also met some cool travelers who shared with us all the awesome places they’d enjoyed in Aus so we have a whole new list of hidden gems to check out on our way back down the coast. 

We kicked off the next day with a champagne brunch in the Koala sanctuary where we got our first peek at the wildlife and got to pet a koala.  Then we wandered into the quaint town of Horseshoe Bay to poke around and check out the beach.  Unfortunately it was too cold to get in the water but we had a nice walk and saw some cool beach homes.  Early that afternoon, we went back to the Koala Sanctuary to spend more time with the animals and interact with them more closely.  Holding the koala was the best part; it was something Alex and I had both looked forward to since first seeing one in Sydney and it did not disappoint.  She was so soft and cuddly! 

We also got to handle a saltwater crocodile, snake, cockatoo and lizards and see a hairy nosed wombat named, what else… Harry!  At the end of our tour, our guide brought out a bunch of native spiders including a big paper bark spider, hidden in tree bark that appeared large and hairy like a tarantula.  He was holding it in his hand but you couldn’t really see the spider so we all keep inching closer trying to get a better look when he threw it in my direction and I screamed bloody murder (wouldn’t be surprised if they heard me all the way in Townsville).  Turns out it was a fake spider, much to the amusement of everyone in our group, especially Alex, who later claimed he ‘saw it coming’.  You’d think he could have warned me?!  Our sanctuary guide was quite a comedian but full of knowledge.  He explained to us that palm trees are not native to Australia.  You only see palm trees on postcards because it’s what it takes for them to sell as tourists expect a palm tree in any tropical beach scene.  We also learned that more people are killed by falling vending machines each year than sharks and crocodiles combined, even though we kill them in the hundreds of millions each year, to the point of threatening the ecosystem.    

After all the excitement of the Koala Sanctuary, we set off hiking to the Forts (used in WWII to monitor Japanese activity off the coast but since abandoned to ruins) where we encountered even more koalas in the wild.  We’d already seen our first one the day before on our way to feed the rock wallabies but it never got old.  The first little guy we saw was sitting on the ground not three feet off the trail just napping.  It was adorable and we stood there watching him for more than ten minutes.  We’d learned from our sanctuary guide that, despite how cute they looked, koalas can be vicious when approached in the wild so we admired from afar.  Then on our way back we encountered two more in trees enjoying dinner.  It was an awesome way to end a great weekend on the island and, up to that point, the most awesome nature experience we’d had in Australia (we’ve since scuba dived the Great Barrier Reef, which left me awestruck, but you’ll have to wait a while longer for that post). 

We’ve since moved on to Cairns where we plan to stay until the end of July.  It’s a gorgeous oceanfront paradise in northern Queensland that is very popular with backpackers so we should be able to find short-term work while we’re here.  Despite being winter, temps average 90 degrees and it’s the dry season so I’m excited it’s where we’ve elected put our transient ways on pause for a few months.  We are able to move into our apartment here on Tuesday and will, at that point, have unlimited internet so I should be able to do a better job of keeping in touch and keeping the blog updated.