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It's my birthday today yay!!
But as usual, I shall be good and recap the past few days!
After leaving the town of 1770, we headed for Townsville to catch our ferry over to Magnetic Island. Nice long bus ride, we caught it at 9.10pm and arrived at the greyhound stop at something past 11am the next morning! Nice and tired, we had an hour to wait before the half-hour ferry, so lots of travelling all in all!
All was worth it though when we got to yet another paradise island, full of little coves and vast areas of rainforests on huge mountains. We stayed in the YHA there, in a wildlife sanctuary, and had a 3-bed hut all to ourselves, with the comfiest beds we have stayed in all trip! Being there was like camping in beds, we could hear all the wild animals outside and see them through the mesh windows! Quite a unique experience. At breakfast, I had the even more unique experience of having lorikeets, little parroty birds, jump on my lap and toast, yum! There were also possums roaming free and rooting around in bins. Definitely plenty of wildlife! They are so tame they are just not scared of you, the birds just fly at you and in the end you're the one running away!
Whilst we were on Mission Beach, Emma and I went on a good old wander the first night, up to some WWII forts. We did some good climbing and had an awesome view of the island and some of the little coves. The next day, we joined Laura, an old school friend of Emma's, for another nice trek down to a few beaches where we had a nice chill out day.
We were planning to head back to Townsville to celebrate my birthday, but after hearing that there wasn't much going on due to it being refurbished, and not finding any good diving deals, we decided to change our plans. We booked a bus to Mission Beach, where we are now, and decided to celebrate my birthday white water rafting instead!!
Which brings us to Mission Beach... we got here yesterday and it's called the Treehouse. It's pretty much in the middle of beaches and expanses of rainforest, and is one of the wettest places in Australia so we're told! It was tipping it down when we got here, but we've been pretty lucky with the weather today.
So, what's Hannah been up to for her birthday? We got up uber-early this morning, at 6am, and I sat rather leisurely with a cuppa whilst Emma and Gaelle made an insane stack of pancakes! They were awesome :D We then headed out at 7.30 for our rafting day. We had 5 hours of rafting grade 4 rapids on the Tully river, which was AMAZING!! So much fun, we got to watch loads of other people's rafts tip over whilst we didn't once! Gaelle did manage to fall out though, and collide with a rock somewhat, but fortunately her head was harder ;) Afterwards we had the usual barrage of overpriced souvenirs. I bought a photo because hey, it's my birthday! Then just before we were due to leave, Callum our guide came over and gave me a DVD of our day which everyone else had been buying for $40, as a birthday present! I love Australians!!
So so far, pretty awesome birthday! We are heading out later for a nice meal and a drinky or 2, then a well earned sleep! I am aching quite a lot right now, rafting is exhausting! We have another day here tomorrow to explore the town a little bit, then on Thursday we are headed to Cairns where Australia finishes. On Sunday we fly to New Zealand!
- comments
Christine C Bon Anniversaire !
Michelle Glad you had such a good day- look forward to seeing the DVD. Suggest though next time you embark on an extreme sport, you tell your parents afterwards- when you're safe and sound!! Have fun- stay safe- hope 22 feels good!