24th - 27th november 

last night we arrived at bungalow bay on the beautiful magnetic island.

SATURDAY... yesterday was a bit of a disaster... charlotte wasn't feeling so great after our big night out in carins on thurs (well it was our last night!) and so we delayed our bus trip until 1pm. unfortunately it was delayed about 2.5hrs and we didnt end up arriving at the island until about 11.15pm, by which point we were pretty fed up! it was lucky we called up in the end because they had actually booked us onto the wrong coach - a day later! the ferry journey across was ROUGH as we have been having quite high winds around queensland for a while now. luckily they left us a torch on the side and we followed a sandy path through to our bungalow (which is like an A-frame hut that you see in the movies in the middle of a jungle where they get attacked by bears in the night). the noises from the animals were haunting and we sort of sat there looking at each other thinking... what are we doing here!! the walls weren't even complete walls until about 1.5m from the ground as it was just formed by netting. it wasn't too reassuring that it had holes in some places.

aNYWay... we woke up alive and got up to make up the time we lost from yesterdays troubles. we went on a tour around the koala wildlife park, held a baby croc, held barney the koala and saw some interesting lizards, wallibis & disgusting snakes! we had our photos taken holding barney (o he's sOOoo cute) which we might let you see one day! we then spent the rest of the day at the strolling down the beach and exploring horseshoe bay in the amazing weather. its quite different from cairns because its very islandy and nobody's in a hurry. tomorrow is going to be a special treat because we have hired the uLtimate barbiemobile - a mini white open top jeep/gold buggy with pink seats and wheels to explore the rest of the island and fit in some snorkelling before we head off on monday.

SUNDAY... today was a beautiful day. i picked up the barbiemobile at 9am and drove it back to bungalow bay to collect charlotte & sam for our snorkelling expedition. we hired some rather attractive stinger suits and headed off for florence bay (because of you floss). trouble was, we could only drive to the entrance of the track along the coast as barbiemobiles were not permitted! so in the soaring heat, equipment in hand, we set off for a 45min walk to the bay. must admit, it was beautiful when we arrived there and saw just 1 other family. we went snorkelling along the rocky shore of the bay and saw a hUGE number of colourful fish! didn't see any sharks this time (thank god cos it was miles for any help!) but saw a tiny clear jellyfish pass before my eyes which may have been one of the extremely dangerous kinds that can infact kill you. as we began our walk back, a lovely silver air conditioned car drove past and took us back to the barbiemobile! that evening we went with a big group to a little restaurant by the beach and had a HUGE meal and live music. it was a really nice way to end the adventure.

MONDAY... we left this morning and headed for our next destination airlie beach.......