Magnetic Island - Airlie Beach

We both had a terrible nights sleep due to a guy and a girl talking and generally being 'noisy' until the very early hours, until I lost my rag and asked them to be quiet. Despite this it was hard to be miserable as this morning we were having breakfast with the koalas. Before breakfast we were introduced to Kevin the Bearded Dragon and Bob, the blue tongued skink. Kevin and Bob were pretty cute and passed around for a cuddle. Breakfast was a huge spread of bacon, sausages, pancakes, French toast, hash browns, Bircher muesli and cake. We have been eating peanut butter on toast for the last God knows how many weeks so we pilled up our plates and tucked in.

Feeling very full we went to go meet a sleepy koala called Hagrid. We were allowed to go into his enclosure and stroke his back. He was adorable and super fluffy and soft! The keeper also brought out a giant carpet python which Simon put round his neck for a photo. There was no way I was putting it round my neck though! Instead I waited for the next animal encounter which was a cuddle with a 3 year old koala called Claudia. I felt like a kid at Christmas. She was super cute and cuddly, I didn't want to let her go. Unfortunately you only get to hold her for less than a minute as she is only allowed to work for 30 minutes a day and they have 4 separate photo sessions.

There were a few other koalas there which you could walk around and see as well as a few small crocs, a black cockatoo and a wombat. The cockatoo was hilarious. When you went up to take a photo of him he would show off and start shaking his head around. The wombat was also adorable and completely passed out on his back with his legs sprawled out like a starfish. He was also considerably bigger than I thought a wombat would be and apparently he's a small one!

After we tore ourselves away from the koalas, we checked out and returned the car. Our ferry wasn't until 3pm so we headed down to the markets on Horseshoe Bay for a nose and then chilled out back at the hostel.

Back in Townsville we jumped on the 4pm bus to our next destination, Airlie Beach. We are staying at the Nomads Hostel and OMG what a dive! We tried to go into the kitchen to cook some dinner and I have never seen anything like it. It was absolutely disgusting. The sinks were overflowing with water and full of dirty pots and pans. Clearly no one here knows how to clean up after themselves and the hostel doesn't bother either. It was so bad that we decided not to cook and went out to grab something to eat instead. The only good thing about the hostel is that the dorm is clean.Læs mere