3; that's the magic number.

3 ladies,

8 days,

1 rental car,

1700 kilometers,

6 destinations,

5 hotel rooms,

700 mm of rain,

6 million trees…

And one hell of a story.

The ladies flew in on March 2nd, just half a day after I worked my last shift at JayJays and said hello to the wonderful world of voluntary unemployment. After taking them on the Sydney tour, the three of us flew up north to start the tropical chapter of our Aussie adventure!

March 6-7 ~ Cairns

Way up in the North-East corner of Australia lies Cairns, the little rainforest town disguised in every travel brochure as the best destination for “the Reef and the Rainforest”, but as we found out, was more like a destination for … Rain. As beautiful as the town was - tiny streets and shops tucked in between mountains, like Banff had been picked up and plunked in between the rainforest and the ocean - about 90% of our time there was drenched in downpour. And in the heat, it was actually quite lovely. But other than some street market shopping and swimming in the rain, we were ready to drive to our next destination … but not after a very unusual drive down the coast….

Atherton, Mission Beach, and other areas of the North-East coast saw close to 500 mm of rain in 3 days... we drove through on the first day, armed with radio traffic and road closure listings, and made it through before the madness really sank in. But it was still a very cool (and slightly nerve-racking) drive!

March 7-9 ~ Magnetic Islands

After a rough drive and an even rougher ferry ride (I quickly learned that a life of sailing is not in my future) we finally made it to Queensland destination #2; Magnetic Island or “Maggie” as it is affectionately known by the locals. A very dark and bumpy bus ride brought us to Bungalow Bay, our home for the next two nights. Being a very cheap backpackers hostel in the low season, we weren’t expecting anything too luxurious, but were pleasantly surprised when we saw the place; individual wooden bungalows plunked in between lush rainforest crawling with all sorts of aussie wildlife. It was just lovely.

The outside view of our lovely cabin.

We even managed to “accidentally” sneak into the koala village and visit some animal friends…

If you look really close, you can see him winking at us!

dun dun dun....

The next day, even though we were promised a full day of rain, was partly cloudy and partly gorgeous, giving us just enough sun to see everything we wanted to see. We started by bussing across the island armed with our rock wallaby food given to us by the staff, and met some more furry friends!

The critters bravely descend the rocks...

baby wally!

wallaby fam-jam

After our mid-day party with the fur balls, it was time to cool off in the world's most awesome natural swimming pool ... after the torrential downpour of the last few days, the falls were running incredibly fast making them incredibly fun to swim in.

The rest of our Magnetic Island experience was wonderful, complete with good food and good drinks and good people. The ferry ride back proved to be much less painful (maybe I am a sailor after all... providing there is no wind, ever...) and we got in the car for our third leg of the East Coast journey - onto the Whitsundays!

March 9-12 ~ The Whitsundays

We arrived in Airlie Beach on Wednesday, and from first glance it was hard to distinguish it from any other beachy area we’d seen on our journey thus far - the lagoon, the harbor, the shops - all very beautiful, but nothing out of the ordinary. But when the sun came out in the morning we were able to see why this beach is the getaway for practically every tourist and aussie alike … gorgeous crystal waters sparkling under sunshine, so clear you can see the stingrays floating along the bottom of the sandbar.

Our resort, Club Crocodile, was more than fantastic. Seeing as we’ve been hostel-hopping for most of the trip, it was nice to finally stay somewhere a little more luxurious (and still cheap! Hooray for low season) for our three-day stint in the islands.

there must be something in the water here....

The next day we were off on our Island adventure, starting with a very wild and bumpy Ocean Rafting ride over to a secret snorkeling spot, then on to Whitehaven beach to hang out in crystal waters and white sands. It was nothing less than perfect.

All set to brave the waves

The ocean raft ride - very exhilirating indeed. Note mom's hilarious lack of varying facial expressions... hahaha

Ready to swim with some fishies!

Next, we're off to Fraser Island, and then back to Sydney and the Blue Mountains before Mom flies home to the Great White North on the 17th. Part Two of the Bailey Lady Extravaganza will be coming soon!