Magnetic Island and the Waterfall Circuit

There is an old physicists joke, that goes like this:

Q: How many numbers does a physicist knows?
A: 3 numbers: 1,2 and infinity.

This is quite the same for a koala seeker.
Magnetic Island, just off the coast of Townsville, is a place to see LOTS of koalas. How much is lots? Well, when we speak about flies then a hundred can be quite a lot (although some would rightly argue that even one is too much). When we talk about kilometers, than 2000 can seem quite a lot when driving a car, but not when flying. If we speak about koalas, then lots means, like in the joke, more than 2.
Maggie, as it is called, is a small tropical island, and it takes no more than 30 minutes to get there by a ferry from Townsville. There are shuttle buses that connect all the important points on the island, at least twice every hour. But the most popular vehicle there is a mock - a funny jeep-like vehicle the size of a carting car.
We slept at a rather noisy backpackers hostel in Arcadia beach. We didn't waste our time and went for a walk called "The Forts". In World War II, Australia was attacked by Japan and Townsville was at the front line. Magnetic Island was fortified and prepared for war, and some of the remains of the forts that were built still exist. This walk climbs to the tallest fort, with great views on the bays at the north and east. This, however, was not the highlight of the walk. During the two hours walk we were lucky enough to see two koalas on the trees. One of them was so close that we could almost touch it and cuddle it (which is basically the only thing that you want to do when you see a koala).

At night we sat in the bar and watched a game of... we actually don't know what game it was. There are two very similar games in Australia. The first is Rugby, which looks like the lawless cousin of American football, and the second is Australian football (Footie), which looks like the lawless version of Rugby. Needless to say that none of them have any relation to real football (which the Australian call "Soccer' like in the US), since there is only little use of the foot, and the thing that they throw is definitely not a ball!
These games are known for the brutal and wild violence that you can inflict upon your opponent, which is followed by a handshake and a friendly tap on the back. Just think how will Christiano Ronaldo would have reacted if tackled that way.
Whatever game it was, it was rather a dramatic one. One of the teams, who was far behind most of the game, managed to tie the score at the last minute and win in overtime. Whatever the sport is, that's how we like it!
Lilya didn't feel well on the next day so Oren went to hike alone on the trail leading from Arcadia to Nelly bay. This wasn't such a lucky day, so all Oren saw was one koala sitting on a tree close by and another female koala. How did he know it was a female koala? He knew that because it had a baby koala grabbing its fur and cuddling in her lap. This was such an amazing sight! The mother was holding the cub and both of them looked like a two face fur ball. Oren didn't need anything more that day.

But this day wasn't over yet. On the afternoon, after spending some time at the beach, we went to see the rock wallabies. Each day before sunset they are being fed at a place near our hostel. The party had already started when we came and the place was crowded with wallabies grabbing every food available from the tourist that were feeding them. We could photograph them from any angle doing their wallaby stuff. When we returned to the hostel we saw 3 kukaburras waiting for their food. You can say we had a good animal day!

Usually, you have certain expectations about the people you might meet in a backpackers hostel. Oliver, which we met that night was nothing like we expected. This Irish born, Sydney resident, ex French cook, retired lad, had lots of amazing stories about his travels around the world. Lilya liked him immediately, since he wore a Chelsea shirt, and indeed he was a long time Chelsea fan, that even climbed Wembly stadium to sneack into a game once.
Oliver was in 90 different countries around the world and he has a notebook to prove it. In his notebook he recorded all the cities and countries he visited with the dates when he did it. This list includes places like Afghanistan, before the soviet invasion, and 15 seconds in Lebanon in 1978, when it was still possible to jump over "the good fence" from Israel and return quickly.
We sat with Oliver for hours hearing his stories about the places, the travels, and especially about the ladied. Like a sailor, for every place there is a girl and for every girl there is a story. Oliver actually came to Maggie to write his book about his travels, but after he found out that the house he wanted to use (another fine story about a girl) was already in use, he stayed at this backpackers hostel. He also made friends, and introduced us to his room mates - a loud bunch of overly drunk Ozie boys that had also some funny stories to tell. Eventually, the owner of the pub had to kick us out, since we stayed very late (which in Australian standards is 10:30pm).
One the next day we returned to Townsville, took our car and drove to Wallaman falls, at the Wooroonooran national park. On the way we threw away 40$ when we decided to enter to the Mamu Mamu treetop walk. This is a highly accessible trail that has some nice balconies at the height of the treetops and a tower above the forest. However, we thought that the price was really exaggerated compared to what we saw there, and that the free walk in Lamington national park was as good.
We arrived on the afternoon to Wallaman falls, the highest falls in Australia. You don't usually think of Australia as a land of waterfalls, but these are really impressive, with a drop of about 340 meters. We went down to the base and up again. This is a very recommended place if your there.

Atherton tableland, between Townsville and cairns, is the home to few other falls, which you can see in a half a day of driving in the "Waterfall Circuit" that starts near Milla Milla. The most famous (and the most beautiful) are the Milla Milla falls, that has become the symbol of this area.

However, they are overly crowded at all times, so come very early if you want to catch them without people. We took some photos of the falls, and continued to Cairns - the great vacation city of Australia.


Tip 1: Go to Magnetic and take the time to take a walk there. You'll have a good chance to see a koala or 2.
Tip 2: The Mamu Mamu is much too expansive for what it gives, in our opinion. However, it is very accessible for disabled people.
Tip 3: Allow enough time in Wallaman falls, the trip down to the base is a must (and then you have to go back...).
Tip 4: There are a lot of organized trips from Cairns to the waterfall circuit but they cost to much. You can rent a car with a friend and do it in half a day for less than half of the price.

Pictures

Picture from Magnetic Island:

And from Wallaman falls and the waterfall circuit:

Guest Pictures

See Itay's perspective on Whale watching, Fraser Island and Eungella:

And another album from the sail in the Whitsundays:

Back to the tropics - Eungella and Airlie Beach

On the day we left Hervey Bay we did two important things: we drove 700 km north to Mackay, and took out our shorts from the bags. Yes, we were back in the tropics, and no one was more happier than Lilya, who could finally defrost her bones.
Mackay itself is not an interesting town at all, but we did have to spend half a day there for arrangements. We slept in a caravan park which looked very cheep which indeed it was, or at least we thought so. We arrived late, so we called them and got a price for 3 people. In the morning we discovered that this price is only for one tent and they charged us double for having two small tents. At least we got to meat a Kiwi (New Zealander) that works in the mines near Mackay, and didn't stop complaining about this "damn owl" that disturbed his sleep. We never saw an owl until then so it was a good chance to see one. We did empathized with the Kiwi guy, since the owl was quite annoying, making loud noises all night long.
We didn't arrive to Mackay to see owls, though. We wanted to visit the Eungella national park in the mountains near the city. Again, like in Lamington, we drove on a winding road climbing up into the rainforest, but this time we were on a mission. Our mission was to track down and photograph a platypus - one of the strangest creatures among the already strange bunch of animals that gathered in Australia. The platypus is an egg laying mammal. It looks like a small beaver, with a strange mouth that looks like a duck's beak. Unfortunately, its strange appearance made it to be the the rejected kid in the animals school (animal kids can be soooooo cruel sometimes...), so the platypus became very shy. It can mostly be seen just after sunset or before sunrise, and only by the luckiest of people. Since we were very lucky until now, we became arrogant, sure that we are about to see at least two mating platypuses, a mother and a cab and at least three males fighting. Instead, when we came before sunset, we saw, well, nothing. One splash of water, far up the stream was claimed to be a diving platypus but we can't be sure.
We went to sleep in the most amazing campsite we've been in yet, on the edge of the mountains above Pioneer Valley, which is, as Lilya defined it, the most perfect valley. We woke up an hour before sunrise to go ambush the platypus again. This time we were much more patient and more humble, and we were rewarded with a glimpse on a small platypus not too far away.

We came back to eat breakfast ("Brekky" as the Ozies call it) which took us much longer than we planned, because, as happens many times during the trip, we met an Australian guy which was very happy to share his life story with us. We talked about anything from weather to sugar cane economy. We had little time so we did only a short (but incredibly beautiful) hike trough the rainforest, before getting back to the coast and driving to Airlie Beach.
Airlie Beach is one happy little town, which is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. Although it is not large, it has a really crowded main street full of tour agencies, backpackers hostels and pubs.
Whitsundays are a collection of small, beautiful islands not far from the coast of Hervey Bay. There are many cruises that go there, you just need to pick the right one for you. Since we were less interested in drinking and vomiting on the deck, and more interested in diving, we picked a company that offers just that. A 2 days and 2 nights cruise on a new catamaran with 25 other tourists. During those 2 days the vessel stops in 4 different reefs and you can either dive or snorkel there.
The crew of Wings2 were a treat by themselves. There were 3 lovely girls, two were Dive Masters and one hostess who prepared all our food and took care of other logistics, and one skipper. All of them were young and very fun.
All the other passengers were tourists from different parts of Europe, all in their late twenties/early thirties. We were considered to be very exotic, and were called "Team Israel". We didn't have the chance to get to know all of them, but the ones we did get to know were really nice. We even made friends with a group of Austrian scientists who came to Australia for a conference. So we had a small science club there.
The accommodation was somewhat claustrophobic (what can you expect from a boat). We slept on a triangular bed that was placed inside one of the two hulls of the catamaran. Right above us was Itay's bed. Besides us there were beds for 5 other people in the same tiny room.
The journey started with a long but humorous briefing by the crew members. One of the important rules on the boat is to sign some paper every time you come back to the boat (after diving and such). If you don't sign on time you will be forced to eat a full spoon of Vegemite. Vegemite is a dark brown paste made from yeast. Australians love it, but all the rest of the world doesn't, so that was a quite efficient threat.
During our 48 hours on the boat we had 4 dives in 4 different sites. Surprisingly enough most of the others didn't have a diving license, they only came to snorkel.
Few days before the cruise Avi and Liron (Lilya's friends) got married, so we wanted to take a special picture of a greeting for them. Before going on board we prepared a waterproof greeting and took it with us on the first dive.

The dives themselves were a bit disappointing. In this area the currents can be quite strong, which makes you struggle all through the dive, and even worse than that, it makes a very poor visibility. We did, however, see two really big cod fish and a ray. But the time we spent on board was so compensating that we didn't mind. The food was good and very diverse. The guys around us were really great too and we couldn't imagine that lying on the deck doing nothing while the sun is gently roasting you can be so pleasant. "This is how life should be..." we said to ourselves, and ourselves agreed.

The evening of the first day was also the evening of Rosh haShana (the Jewish New Year). Even though we were on a lovely cruise we didn't forget that. We brought with us some honey and few apples and after dinner shared them with all the rest. That was really exotic for them!
On our second day we visited the famous Whitehaven Beach. On the way there we tried to sunbath on the deck while nasty clouds kept interrupting us. At some point it even started drizzling. But at the second we got to the beach the sun went out again, enabling us to take lots of classical pictures from the amazingly white sand with the perfect clear turquoise water. We spent there about an hour, and when it was time to leave the skies became dark gray and it started raining, pretty heavily. How many times have you stood in a pouring rain while you are wearing nothing but your bathing suit?

On our last day we were in the water at 7:30am, even before breakfast. That wasn't easy at all especially for people like us who like to take it slow in the mornings. In the afternoon we were back in Hervey Bay, tanned and happy.

Tip 1: Oddly enough, in Australia the prices at the tourist agencies are much cheaper than the ones you will get from the tour operator itself. So it is batter to look for a good agent.
Tip 2: If you are looking for a cruise with a great atmosphere, try Wings2 or Wings3. Even if you don't dive, you'll have a wonderful time there.
Tip 3: If you are going to visit Whitehaven Beach take a very good care of your camera, or even consider not taking it with you. The sand particles are so small that they can enter the camera and destroy it.

Pictures

Pictures from Airlie Beach and the sail to the Whitsunday Islands