Day 11 – Airlie Beach to Magnetic Island

We ended our stay at Arlie beach by renting one of the two seat, three wheeled bikes that they have at the resort. Wyatt was so happy I thought his head would pop off. He had been asking to get one since we arrived and he saw other kids using them.

As we walked to reception today to get our special surprise I asked him what he thought it might be. He replied “Daddy, everytime I ask you to get me a yellow bicycle you say no and it makes me sad. Today you should say yes. I want to get a yellow bicycle, that would make me happy. “

We rode it around the caravan park for an hour with various combinations aboard including at one point Me with Wyatt on my lap steering, and Mel in the passenger seat with Cooper and Maddy on her lap. Cadel Evans has nothing on me !

We departed the park with sad faces and headed for Townsville about 250km to the North on highway A1. We stopped in Ayr for lunch at the local Macker’s ( McDonalds ). The kids love the playgrounds and they are hard to find on the road without the McDonalds attached to them.

We made it to Townsville just in time to catch our 2:30 ferry to Magnetic Island. Magnetic Island is a fairly large Island with a few roads on it so you can take your non 4 wheel drives across. The ride across took about 35 minutes and then we made our way across the islands only road to Horseshoe bay and our room for the next two nights. It was overcast at this point so the initial impressions were a bit muted, but the views are breathtaking.

Since the kids were off schedule and didn’t have an afternoon nap we decided to put them in the strollers and go for a short walk. We went up and down the strip along the beach and then Mel suggested we go check out the local Koala sanctuary / Backpacker hostel. It was only a short 5 minute walk back up the main road . They have guided 2 hour walks through the sanctuary where you can hold a koala, snake, and crocodile. We had missed the last walk but signed up to take one tomorrow. They did however suggest that we stick around to witness the bird feeding. Seemed harmless enough so we decided to wait a few minuted for the 4:30 feeding.

We walked out behind the reception building to find a large tree filled with green and blue and red parrots. And by filled I mean hundreds of them…they were almost deafening. After a few minutes the guide came out from the reception building with a tuperware of food…she was covered in parrots ! Immediately the birds started landing on anything and everything that might have food…heads, shoulders, hands, Maddy’s head !

People started grabbing handfuls of food and holding their arms out so the birds could eat. You would end up with 4 or 5 birds on your arm all at once ! And perhaps even one on your head ! It was crazy ! People were laughing , some were screaming ! Wyatt thought it was great…he was trying to touch them and catch them…Maddy was all smiles until one dared to land on her hat. She was not impressed ! Cooper was fine and acting like it was an every day appearance until one landed on his head. At this point he lost it and I had to retreat with him to a safe distance to calm him down.

So yet again an unplanned event stole the show for us !

p.s. Also updated posts for Days 1 - 6 with pictures. For more pictures see our flickr site as we can't post them all here.