Arlie to Magnetic Island

After leaving the Whitsunday Islands we headed back into Airlie for another 2 nights. We still can’t head north as the roads and some areas are impassable. One of the highlights of the Airlie Beach Resort was that every morning the Lorikeet parrots came in to feed and it was amazing to see. The owner had obviously been feeding them for a long time and all the guests could hold out food and hundreds of the beautiful birds landed on your arms, head, etc. Great fun if you don’t worry about what birds do when they eat!!!!

We  headed up to a waterfall where we spent the morning hiking and swimming – very much in the wilderness .

The next morning we again fed the parrots before heading off 300km up the coast to Townsville, an area that was definently hit by the hurricane. It was an interesting drive through  hundreds of acres of sugar cane , some coffee plantations and citrus orchards.

We arrived by ferry on Magnetic Island, an area that was hard hit by the storm. The hostel had just reopened and the town was just full of sand and debris. It will take months to clear everything away. Everywhere you look there are trucks and front end loaders shovelling sand off of roads and trying to clear streets and beaches .Some areas had sand drifted 4 ft high of sand from the shore line. It is such a mess. The pool where we are staying had 1 ft of sand in it.

We spent the morning hiking up to an old fort used to defend Australia against the Japanese during WW1 .Normally the area would have been a home for koalas but all their food trees (gum trees ) were stripped of their branches so they had moved on to areas with more food . Most of the hiking paths are full of debris and closed to the public. Tomorrow we start the trip north through the hardest hit area of the cyclone. The roads are open but sections apparently near impassable. It should be an eye opener for all of us.