Sept 18 ...Townsville

I love Townsville! It has such a nice feel to it, and we are in a great park at Rowes Bay. There is a walking track across the road that goes for kilometres each way, all along the water. And the views are superb. Right in front of us is Magnetic Island and behind us is Castle Rock. From the top of this rock is an amazing lookout and the rock itself can be seen from everywhere in Townsville .

Magnetic Island

Townsville and Magnetic Island

The city and Castle Rock

Townsville and Castle Rock

Our drive down from Ingham was a little smoky as there are some pretty big fires around. The onshore breeze has so far kept the smoke away from us but visibility was significantly reduced on our second day here. Fortunately that improved as each day passed.

The Ross River - Townsville

Rowes Bay - Townsville

 As soon as we had checked in and swapped to a shadier site, we went for a walk around to The Strand. The beach looked quite nice and there was even a surf patrol but it was very windy and not overly warm so we were happy to sit and eat an ice cream. At one end of The Strand is an area called The Rockpool. It is a huge man made pool, filled with seawater, and surrounded by lovely grassed slopes and trees. There are three swimming areas on the foreshore but at this time of the year, it is quite okay to swim in the ocean.

The Strand

The pier on the Strand

The Rockpool

The Strand beach

There are also some nice looking places to eat along The Strand but our timing has not been so good as they have a three day triathlon happening and the whole area is dedicated to that each morning. Luckily there are plenty of other things to do and over our time here we found many other wonderful places where you could enjoy a meal.

Rowes Bay Caravan Park

Not where I would like to be living in a cyclone!

During our first night we had a scary experience when someone opened our van sliding door at 3am. The noise woke Garry and I immediately and Garry saw a guy walking around looking suspicious. We told them about it at the Office and they said they knew about the guy and he had been causing a problem for a while !!! We have not been locking up at night but now we will have to. I am still puzzled as to how the guy thought he could steal anything with two people inside such a small space, and our valuables are all up near us anyway.

Park decorations - Rowes Bay

Nessie, at the Bay

On our first day here we went shopping and got lots of good stuff for the van ... 2 more chairs because the others got wrecked by some careless people!!! a new mat and other bits and pieces. Townsville has a population of 190000 and it has every shop you can name. I really think I could live here especially if I could afford a home at Rowes Bay!

After shopping we went for a walk along the beachfront near our Park and the path wound its way through these unusual trees. They are called "walking trees" because they put roots down from their branches and these become tree trunks too so the original tree just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Possibly some sort of fig, these trees are all over Townsville and they are quite impressive, always huge and very shady.

"Walking" Trees

The following day we set out to do a couple of the organized walks around the city. There are three Heritage Trails and we tackled "Early Townsville" and "Civic Pride".I had no idea there were so many old and beautiful buildings around the town. It was also surprising to see how quiet the city was on a Saturday morning.

We really enjoyed our walks, stopping in at The Collectables Cafe for morning tea. It had over 50 types of tea available... but we still had our usual coffees! Inside were lots of dressers and shelving, all containing old crockery and tea sets. It was a funky and interesting place to take a break.

The Collectables Cafe

We then walked down to The North Queensland Museum. It was excellent but contained rather an eclectic selection of displays, ranging from film robotics to the salvaged remains of the HMS Pandora, the ship sent out to arrest the Bounty mutineers and which sank just off Cooktown after hitting the reef. There were also big displays on corals, the rainforest flora and fauna, and fossils. It was all interesting if a bit strange, but we enjoyed a good couple of hours.

HMS Pandora

Lunch in the park

After a late lunch in the park overlooking the harbour we drove up north along our road to Pallarenda. From here we walked up to another lookout that had views to the north and south. This drive was the length of Rowes Bay and the parkland between the road and beach is a really lovely place to park and relax.

By the end of the day we felt we had done plenty of exercise. Then we had to get organized to stream the Rugby World Cup ... Aust Vs Ireland. Disappointingly, Australia played really badly (or Ireland played really well !) and we lost the game. Garry is just pleased he will be able to watch the games ... provided we can get the internet!

Today we were up very early as there was to be a fly past of old planes at dawn to commemorate the Battle of Britain. We saw all 5 !!! small planes and then took the opportunity to do some washing. It was still fairly early so we decided to drive up Castle rock as the visibility was good and the winds minimal. The views from there are 360 + degrees and they are excellent. The drive up is quite steep and about 3-4 kms long, but heaps of people were either running or walking up. On the top there are 5 different lookouts and we were challenged just walking to these ... it must have been our sore muscles from yesterday !!

Around 9am we headed off to the city to go to the markets in Flinders Street. They were easily the best, most varied and cheapest I have been to all trip. They made Broome and Darwin Markets look like overpriced rubbish and I immediately regretted having bought anything at them. Most of the 170 stalls had original, home-made products and there was very little imported from China. I did get a few things but mainly we bought fruit, biscuits and freshly baked bread. Again, Garry was very lucky I have the lack of space in the van as a limiting factor.

Walk pre-reading

Morning tea beside the Ross River

We then parked by the Ross River and had a lovely morning tea of baguette with gruyere cheese and coffee before heading off on our third and last heritage walk. This one was through "South Townsville and the Port". The focus of this walk was mainly old cottages and hotels. Many of the streets in South Townsville are part of a Heritage Precinct and most of the buildings have been restored. We saw some beautiful examples of Queensland architecture as well as getting a bit of an understanding of the history of the town.

It was quite a long walk so we were happy to come back to the Park for a late lunch and a lazy afternoon. Garry and I liked everything about this city. It is well planned, has all the services and is visually really attractive. I think living in Townsville could be very pleasurable at some stage in the future!