Best Western Cascade Motor Inn Townsville

... to Townsville. After a pleasant bus journey that took just over 5 hours we arrived in Townsville for a night before getting on another boat tomorrow to take us to ferry us across to Magnetic Island, not sure of where the name comes from but sure we'll find out. I doubt if the whole island is magnetic that would just be silly, we have heard that the island has the largest number of wild Koala's for the area.
This afternoon was taken up ...

We pulled for a one nighter in Townsville, then we were heading down the coast to Brisbane, We went through Ayr and for those that don't know we lived about 10 miles from Ayr when we stayed in Scotland.
We pulled in to few places on the way including Airlie Beach which was very nice. As we think we will be settling this side of the big country we ...

Early start this morning as Jeremy had the car booked in for a general service. To get somewhere we had to catch the bus which the boys thought was great adventure. Jeremy took Ethan and Elijah to Reef HQ which is a big aquarium and underwater setup. They seemed to enjoy it - especially the icecream afterwards! While they went ...

... entered the ocean on day 4 (i chilled on day 3 watching, the most relaxing day of the trip so far for me!).

For this we had to complete 2 dives on day 4 and 5 then received two extra dives for free on day 5 having qualified. To be fair despite Nat taken her time in the pool, it actually worked out in our favour because on day 3 and 4 the water was rough and visibility was no more than 2m but on our final day of 4 dives we ...

Day 2

Up super early (5am) Simon and I had coffee and made some breakfast before waking the kids. All kids up and dressed by 6am. on the Road by 6:15am. Stopped in Mackay around 11 for coffee with Narelle but alas her power was off so cordial it was :) Poor Jacob wasn't well this day. high temps and just moserable

Stopped in Bowen to ...

... bekommt Hung**, ab** das ist ja auch unwahrscheinlich. Danach haben wir dann noch einen Vortrag üb** Haie gehört, waren in ein** int**aktiven Zone (eh** was für Kind**, als für mich) und sind dann raus. Eigentlich wollte ich danach noch ins Cultural Centre (Aboriginal Shows etc) ab** die haben zur Zeit aus technischen Gründen zu. Auf d** Suche nach etwas Essbarem haben wir die Einkaufsmall **kundet. Das Essen war mir üb**all zu teu** dafür dass ich gar nicht so richtig Hung ...

... to sleep and chill!! The bus stops at Townsville and the day tunrs a different colour to what I had painted in my head ...

I go through my bag to find my wallet to go buy lunch and a slow cold panic invades my body running from my guts to my throat... my wallet is just not in my bag and nor is my phone... Damn!!! did I leave them at the coffee shop on our previous break?... I can't think of any other place I could have left them.

I run out of the bus to the ...

... In the garage they fortunately were able to fix it, at least temporarily, otherwise we would have had to invest quite a few bucks to a proper repair. Most of the day we spent in the car trying to reach Cairns at a reasonable hour. I was given a present from the guys in the evening, a hat which fitted perfectly. Later on after a celebration start up in the camp, we transferred to a disco club, where my new hat came in handy.

... there are wallabies (which are also still to find), and so many crazy birds which make funny noises (so that you cannot sleep at night...). Some of them even sound like monkeys! And of course there are the beaches. Not a single big one but many many small ones (but you should not go into the water where there is no stinger net or you got protection from the bay!). There are not many houses on the island but still quite a lot at almost every bay. And there is only one bus ...

... kitchen".

Unfortunately it appears that the author must have 'phoned-in' his review, because 2 of the 3 kitchens had NO working ovens, hobs or microwaves, and the 3rd had only 1 working hob and another THREE ...