I'm not headed north, there's moss on this side

After a long ride on the bus stopping to see a giant mango and giant snake and the nicest public toilet on the east coast we made it into Townsville. From there we were to take the ferry over to Magnetic Island so named because when Jim Cook sailed past his compass went crazy. Crazy.

So when we get on the bus by the skin of our teeth, because we weren't booked and just went and tried and it luckily worked out, the driver takes off his hat and glasses and goes into a 5 minute Smeigel impression. Seriously, 5 minutes. Funny for the first 1 minute or so, scary for 4. Yeah so we are on and have our surfies in the aisle all day and on this day we stop 100 times and have to move them. See we have no more big green buses and thus no real storage. Where we could have 50 on a bus it is now 24. Sucks but we got on in the end because Mary didn't show and there is always shotgun open if you can put up with driver's zany antics. On this day Freddy and i were DJs because the tape deck wasn't working and he had an iTrip to play through the radio. I think most of the bus appreciated his Danish taste of American music to my in touch and deep knowledge of what is truly good music. Oh well. Can't win em all. I did get some mango jerky and mango smoothy in Bowen the supposed Mango capital of the world where they say "there's mangoes and there's Bowen mangoes" or something along those lines. I think that my mind is slipping a bit only thinking about things like my next meal and whether to go to the beach or not. Actually not true i do read a lot and try to understand non English speakers and correct them. At their request of course.

So when we make it to Townsville we drive up Castle Hill which isn't supposed to have buses on it but we do it anyway. Cool up there and i think it's the rich part of town because they all have beemers and Maserati in their garages. Strange to see a Maserati in Aussie. Don't ask me why. It's a Saturday here in a town of over 100,000 and there is nothing open for lunch. We were later told that Queenslanders are religious and need to go home early on Saturday to drink in the backyard. End up eating at Subway (3rd American restaurant of the trip) and it was divine but they had no water and i didn't want Coke. Yeah nothing was open it really sucked. We then went to the ferry terminal where driver was trying to back onto the barge in his first ever backing with a trailer experience. Went surprisingly well. Another ferry ride with eagles eating fish and waves and wind. We got over and did a short walk with the bus crew and saw a bunch of wild Koalas and remnants of a WW2 fort to protect Townsville from the Japanese. Cool walk and learned about Koala mating habits. Quite strange for such a slow moving creature. You should look into it.

Magnetic was dope. Hung out the first day getting sorted and our bearings although impossible when your compass doesn't work. I decided to camp the whole time out here and was very glad to get out of the dorms for awhile and breathe the good air. Four nights did wonders but the last it rained all night and i don't have enough stakes for the rain fly so i was a bit wet and tired in the morning after a long night. While here we went for a hike hoping to make it around to some secluded bays but to get there you have about 2k of bouldery coastline. Great fun for me but not for the ill prepared ie Jon with thongs on. Jake annoyed him a bit by asking if he would like extra suntan lotion applied to his neck. These are constant reminders of Jake's big question (BGJ). Did that and it felt good to get some exercise and the jug of beer when we finally got back was even better. We jumped off some rocks but getting out holding onto barnacles is never fun. We were all cut to hell but smiling nonetheless. Next day was my day and i explored Picnic Bay and met a crazy Austrian lady who had been there 14 years and made art from scraps in the junk yard. She would stop by the next day while i was waiting for a broken phone to call mom on her bday to wish me good luck for the future. She told me of her band of 20 friends on the island each playing a different instrument and making beautiful music. She recounted stories of her travels and went on and on. Quite enjoyable though. Did a lot of hiking on this small island and was glad to have some solitude. However the hostel where everyone (Danes, Dutch we met, Jo, and Jon) was nutty. Huge parties and bar and stuff. Didn't partake except the last night when Jon had 2 free jugs of cocktails which turned out to be sprite and grenadine. Good shit.

On the way back to the ferry terminal we met our next driver and she was huge and obnoxious. However we had a cool shuttle driver - an old guy named Cpt Dave and he had a train whistle, could look like Popeye, and really did. Face, clothes, hat, voice, cursing, he had it all. Very cool and he recommended some good ice cream.