Toques and Tan Lines: Beaches! (That you should not swim at!)

Yes, Australia has some phenominal beaches, but due to all the dangers in the water, it is highly recommended that you do not swim in the water. These dangers include crocodiles, sharks, stingers (not in season right now but the signs are still everywhere), and currents. Throw on top of that the occasional stingray and my favorite place to be is now potentially the most dangerous. Doesn't stop me from enjoying the beaches though!

So since I can't spend every waking hour at the beach I need to find other things to do with my time, and luckily Australia is full of activities! All of my favourite ones so far happen to involve animals, which is no surprise really.

I spent a morning at Reef HQ in Townsville, seeing the sharks was very interesting but my favourite part was the sea turtles. Reef HQ is a turtle hospital, so they take care of and home injured marine turtles until they're strong enough to return to the wild. They had a couple green turtles and it shocked me as to how big they actually are! Stevie was in the predator tank and absolutely dwarfed all the sharks in there. Saw tons of interesting fish, but nothing beats seeing them out on the reef. I had planned to walk the Esplanade that afternoon but I ended up at the Museum of Tropical Queensland instead. I thought it would be a like any other museum but it was so much fun! Almost every exhibit had a hands on, interactive component. I learned so much about the human body, animals of Queensland and the Pandora, a ship that sank just off the coast of Australia.

At Magnetic Island I had my first experience with a Koala! So fluffy!! Anyways, I stayed at Bungalow Bay which has an animal sanctuary right on sight. The sanctuary was awesome, they allowed you to hold and touch most of the animals that are there. Turtles, snakes, baby salt water crocodiles, lizards, and of course Koalas! I got to hold Pebbles and I have never felt anything so soft in my life, I didn't want to give her back. The sanctuary also feeds a flock of Rainbow Lorikeets every afternoon and all guests are welcome to help out. By far one of my favourite activities as having birds swarm around you is quite an experience.

I met a couple girls from Holland and we had decided that the one day we would walk to a couple of the other bays on the island and go snorkeling. Well our snorkeling day turned into more of a hiking day as the paths between bays were more rock than paths and more uphill than anything. Needless to say a quick cool down was necessary and every stop involved a swim. We even stopped at the nudist beach which was... interesting. Beautiful little bay, we saw a small stingray and tons of needlefish in there but... well... yea...