August 12 Townsville

Made it!!! It was with some relief that we arrived in Townsville without any other car issues although the whine in the transmission is certainly louder.

This morning when we stepped outside the van there were mysterious objects in the sky – someone said they were clouds. We haven’t seen any for almost three weeks!

We had a good run from Hughenden and today travelled through country which was much more interesting. It was hilly and with lots of different trees – we even saw some of the wattle and grevillea we had enjoyed between Emerald and Barcaldine. There was absolutely no sign of drought for the last 250 km or so. The countryside was green with water in the creeks and rivers and even in the table-drains. This area had heavy rain when we were at Barcaldine and it’s obviously done a lot of good.

A short stop-over in Charters Towers convinced us that we have to go back and spend a few days. It was in its heyday in the gold rush days and has lots of magnificent buildings with heritage aspects. The parks and gardens were lush and green.

Our caravan park is really good – we have an ensuite site and both the car and van are on concrete. Excellent!! No more grass, dust, dirt, mud, gravel etc in the van, at least while we are here. There’s a big shopping centre a few minutes walk away and every take-away place known to man (and woman) just outside the front gate. The people on each side of us are from Newcastle, have been coming here for a number of years and stay for a couple of months each time. Already I really like what little I’ve seen of Townsville. People are complaining about the cold but everyone has shorts etc on.

We shouted ourselves dinner at Sizzlers tonight – we haven’t been to one of these restaurants since Shellharbour’s closed. Absolutely loved it although I should get some exercise tomorrow to work it off. The whole experience was made more enjoyable because we were able to get a Seniors discount plus a discount because we were staying at this caravan park – altogether saved us $12. More pig outs to come!

First thing tomorrow I have to get the car to the repairer and then get in touch with the NRMA to arrange a hire car etc. Then we can start exploring.