Magnetic Island is a volcanic island halfway between Cairns and Airlie Beach. The island is 70% national park and only about 2000 locals live on the island. The main reason we had arrived at the island was to have breakfast with the koalas as there are about 800 koalas that live on the island. Sadly, due to the cyclone that came in last week the island was severely impacted. Water had been contaminated and the island did not receive proper shipment of supplies. The koala sanctuary was also shut tight. When we arrived yesterday, it was blistering hot and around 110. We were all dying from the heat and could not find anything to do either. There was a single grocery store a 30 minute walk away but the pool was closed and the beach had jellyfish in it. We decided the only thing was to laze around and drink at the hostel bar.
This morning Steph had arranged a hike for us in hopes that we could still spot koalas. The walk was at Forts Walking Trail which we hopped on the public bus to get to. Last night a storm had rolled in and dropped tons of rain down so this morning, it was all wet and mosquitoes were everywhere. The Forts Walking Trail was through a eucalyptus forest as that is where the koalas hang out.
A little while into our walk we spotted a koala! The little guy was up in a eucalyptus tree and was also awake! Koalas are incredibly lazy creatures and sleep about 18-20 hours a day so they are only awake for a couple hours. During those couple hours, they eat a ton of the eucalyptus leaves. The eucalyptus are hard to digest and poisonous to most other animals. The koala up in the tree was smaller than I expected him to be and so freaking adorable. He looked so cuddly and just like a stuffed animal! I wanted to cuddle him so badly. He was walking up the tree slowly and sticking his tongue out which was the cutest thing ever. I was obsessed to say the least.
The Fort walk led to an old WWII fort that was used as a lookout point. I climbed up to the bunkers for some pretty amazing views of the island. We were now on the opposite side of the island from where we were staying and I could see the bay below and a lot of the protected forestland all around us. It is good that the forest is protected as it is an important habitat for the koalas.
On the way back from the hike Steph took us to see the Rock Wallabies. Wallabies are a part of the same family as kangaroos and are essentially a medium sized kangaroo. They have the big feet, hop from place to place, and lack the ability to move backwards. The first one we saw was hidden among the rocks staring out at us. The wallaby looked shy and timid as if he was curious about what we were doing.
There were a couple other Rock Wallabies hidden among the rocks of varying sizes. They blend in so well with the rocks hence the name. While we were coming out some tourists were feeding the wallabies apples so the wallabies had come out of the rocks and were feasting on the apples. That was when we got an up close look at them. Feeding the wallabies is actually bad for them since they are wild animals and should be hunting for their own food rather than being domesticated by humans. We were not allowed to feed the wallabies so we just watched the other tourists do it while we snapped out pictures.
Comentários