Magnificent Magnetic

What can I say about Magnetic Island, it was amazing. The guide books don't seem to give it the attention it deserves - in my opinion it was better than Fraser. One of the highlights was definitely the hostel, which had its own beach and nice decking with fabulous views. And the rooms were cute little bungalows. So, we got there at 2 pm and decided to rent some bikes to have a look around, attempting to cross the island to get to Horseshoe Bay. Only thing is we didn't think about the fact that the island is like a mountain, so going up the hill was not fun. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the other side. By the time we got back were dead and went to bed really early, but did not get to sleep until everyone else had gone to bed as the music was so loud outside and we had annoying Swiss girls screaming outside our room for quite some time.
The next day was awesome. We hired a "topless car" with a guy called Chris who we met in Agnes Waters, and driving was really fun. The island barely has any roads so the places to see are pretty limited, but it was so much fun driving again. And there's no traffic at all. We parked in Radical Bay and started walking the 3.5 km road to the beach (access not permitted to cars), then realised it was gonna take us forever so hitched a ride with an Aussie couple who frequently holiday at Magnetic. From the beach we followed a 1.6 km hiking trail to Balding Bay, which is one of the few nudist beaches in Queensland, as it is illegal in most of the state. That was really nice - there was barely anyone around, it was like we had the beach to ourselves. Only thing is the hike was pretty tough and it was boiling, and we'd arranged to meet up with Chris at a certain time so we only got to spend about 15 mins sunbathing.
After that we saw some wild wallabies, and I got to hand feed them! We spent the rest of the day making the most of the car and driving around. Returned it at 5 and bumped into Ricki and Ryan, two Brits who we met at Rainbow Beach and who are a real laugh. Because we like them so much and the island also, we decided to change our plans and prolong out stay, and it was so worth it. We went on another hike, I got to drive again (this time it was a Hello Kitty car), we saw a koala up on a tree, and played UNO and pool at the bar. We were really sad to leave today, we don't know if we'll see those guys again.
So all in all, a beautiful experience and now in Cairns. It's a weird transition from a small, compact and quiet island to this big, empty, ghost-like town. We're going on a snorkeling trip tomorrow, so more fishies!!
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