After a four hour bus ride from Airlie Beach we arrived in Townsville. From there we had to take the ferry to Magnetic Island.

Should I hate the backpacking life?

Arrived on the island, we first checked how far it is to the hostel. Since thirty minutes walking with our suitcases was too much for us, we decided to take the bus. We were able to check in directly at the hostel and then settled into our rooms.

Pretty soon we realized that it was the worst hostel we had ever been in.

The bathroom was dirty and to get there you had to walk all over the place. We were also lucky that it rained for three days and we always had to walk through the rain to get to the bathroom.

In the kitchen there were no bowls, no spoons and no dry towels. The rooms were full of cobwebs, small animals and besides, it was really cold due to the air conditioning that could not be turned off.

Wallabies in nature

After we had settled in, we walked to the nearby village Nelly Bay. Along the road and along the water.

In the harbour we could even see wallabies. Actually, there were quite a few. After we were finally able to leave the cute wallabies alone we already made our way back to the hostel, as it was getting dark slowly.

Who cares about the rain?

In the morning we were woken by pouring rain. To get ready we had to go through the rain to the bathroom. We were not even really awake and we were already soaking wet.

According to the weather forecast it should rain all day and all the days to come. But as we did not want to waste our time in the hostel and absolutely wanted to see something of Magnetic Island, we put on some short clothes (so that our clothes at least did not get wet), put on our rain jackets and went to the bus stop.

We bought a day ticket for $7 and planned to use it as much as possible and see as much of the island as possible. First we went to a hiking trail. It still drizzled a little bit but the rain was bearable. Fortunately it was warm, so we didn’t freeze.

Getting in touch with Australia’s Wildlife

We were the only ones on this trail and because it was so quiet we could see eight kangaroos. Also we have seen a wallaby and even a koala. We even saw him in exactly the few seconds he was moving and cleaning. Shortly afterwards he was sitting lazily on his branch again.

When we were on our way back, many people came to walk this trail. Probably they could not see any kangaroos then. On the way back we could see another koala sitting in the tree.

From the hiking trail we walked to Horseshoe Bay, a small village on Magnetic Island. Actually, we wanted to take the bus there, however, this should come only in 40 minutes and because it was only 2 kilometres to walk, we have decided that we do not wait for the bus. In the meantime the rain had also abated and it was only a little cloudy. On the way to Horseshoe Bay we could even see a koala sleeping in a tree again.

Arriving in Horseshoe Bay we found a coconut which a nice man we met there opened for us with a hammer he had in his car. After the coconut was finally open we had a fresh snack and drink.

From Horseshoe Bay we took the bus to Picnic Bay. From there we actually wanted to hike to a Lookout Point, but we couldn’t find the hiking trail there. So we walked from there back to the hostel, which luckily was not very far.

Arrived at the hostel it started to rain again. Since we had already seen quite a lot of the island that day, we did not leave the hostel that day anymore.

From the hostel we got a voucher for a free dinner, which we then redeemed that evening. I ordered pasta with sweatpotato and tomatoes. In the hostel we had no connection to the internet and also only very bad Wifi, which did not work at all in the room. So we spent the evening sitting in the room playing travel games.

A tiny bit of sun for us

Our last day on Magnetic Island started again with being woken up by the rain. Fortunately it stopped raining very quickly and we could start our next hike at about 11 o’clock.

From our hostel we walked back to Picnic Bay and from there we wanted to walk to West Point. That morning it did not rain anymore and even the sun came out.

The path was very pleasant to walk, as most of the time it was only flat and straight. Twice our way was blocked by huge puddles, through which we could only get by taking off our shoes.

The third puddle was much too big to get through there, so we turned around and didn’t get to West Point. The hike was nevertheless very beautiful.

Then we made our way back to the hostel and just before we arrived there it started raining again. We spent the afternoon in the hostel and in the evening we went to bed early.

The next morning we took the ferry back to Townsville in pouring rain and from there we took the bus to Cairns.

It was a little bit sad that we could only see the island in rain and cloudy skies. But it was still a nice experience. Despite the bad weather, we felt that our second day on the island was one of the most beautiful days on our trip of the east coast, because we could see so many animals in wildlife.