Townsville was excatly as i had remembered it form a few years earlier. A ghost town. There are no pubs, no open shops, no people, and no sign of intelligent life. After a quick one night stop we had to get out and the perfect place to escape was Magnetic Island. Due to huge floodings all across the Eastern Coast of Australia caused by the start of the rainy season all roads south were blocked so we decied to stay for a few days until it cleared up.

The first day on Magnetic Island i decided to take a stroll down along side the beach to a peninsula. I stood in a carpark looking out to sea and suddenly had the feeling I was being watched. To the left of me, sitting on a large rock was a wallabee. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before. I slowly walked over to it trying not to scare it, but it did not flinch. I ended up sitting right next to it with us both looking out to sea thoughtfully. After a closer inspection i found the whole place was covered with them, all hopping around like minature kangaroos.

Later that day we went on the search for something a bit rarer. Koala Bears. The island was supposed to be covered with them and one of the best places in Australia to see them. However after doing a couple of hours walk up to the top of a hill looking at every tree we passed we hadn't seen one. We did on the other hand see a huge colony of bats living in an old World War II bunker. Luckily for us we also hadn't seen one of the common and approapriately named Death Adders on the walk as well so we returned back for a few drinks.

We got talking to this one guy at our hostel who studied Brain Nurology or something similar at University. It turns out that he knew all the secrets behind Derren Browns programs and even knows how to hypnotise people. I asked him to try it out on me and he said he would. He told me to do a series of things that left me uncontrollably smiling. It was a strange sense of overwhelming happiness that is impossible to decribe. Once he had me in the trance he started touching my shoulder without me realising and saying stuff i cant remember. I was completely out of it. Unfortunately he snapped me out of it and told me what he'd done before trying to send me to sleep so it didn't work, but it was a strange experience i'd love to try again.

The following day we left again for the mainland and down south as the rains had eased and the roads were clear. The next place to visit was Mission Beach, one of the longest beaches in Australia. This was where i was going to do my skydive!