TOWNSVILLE

Wednesday, 19 June 2019

Waiting for the moon to rise...

rising...

and looks much bigger in real life!

Breakfast on the patio in Townsville

Back garden at Townsville

Rowes Bay

Supposed to wait for the timer to finish...

National Servicemen's Memorial, with Magnetic Island in the background

Whoa, Nessie!

Artwork

That is one ugly fish

Sculpture of a hermit crab or a tick?
Actually just a coconut that had us fooled.

Monday morning at Mackay we decided to visit Caneland Shopping Centre (never been there before) to collect a few grocery items in preparation for the drive north to Townsville.  We had anticipated about an hour, which quickly became four!  This is the largest shopping centre we have visited outside a capital city and seemed to be made up of many small alleys as well as the larger connecting ones, with lots of shops to browse.  Shirts Anonymous seemed to be working, as Himself showed great restraint around the shirts and didn’t seem to think that a windcheater really qualified as a shirt!  That evening, we joined a large number of caravanners to watch the full moon rise over the sea – very special.

After washing the car and caravan (again!) on Tuesday morning, we set out for our longest day, with 400 kms to travel to Townsville.  The weather was superb, with a tail wind and reasonable traffic until Prosperine.  After Prosperine, the traffic seemed to disappear until Bowen; all the trucks had just been waiting there for us to pass!!!  We had a lunch break at Ayr and arrived at Rowes Bay, Townsville, about 2.30pm.  We are in the developed front part of the park, with a very large site, an enormous slab (longest we have ever seen), lawn, tropical hedges, palm trees and frangipani borders.  Very pleasant, although a number of midgies seem to enjoy it as well.  The curlews followed us to Townsville, but we kept our destination a secret from the bats!  The back section of the park is being developed and needs a couple of years for the plants to grow.

The park is literally across the road from Rowes Bay beach and esplanade, with lovely long walking/bike pathways heading in both directions.  Magnetic Island is just across the water and The Strand only about a kilometre away.  Just right for a nice walk this morning to stretch our legs and view the numerous artworks before, this afternoon, we were delighted to discover the gelataria is still on The Strand.

We have discovered the caravan park is only a short distance from the airport, so we get to hear all the commercial jets taking off, as well as the Defence Force aircraft – jets and helicopters; the helicopters are currently undertaking night time exercises.