August 13 Townsville

I think I’m in love with Townsville, but more about that later. Everything today went really well. I had the car at the repairer at 8.00 am and by 8.30 the NRMA had spoken to the repairer to check the car was going to be off the road for more than 24 hrs, contacted Thrifty and rung me back to tell me that a Ford Territory would be ready to pick up at 11 o’clock. I needn’t have worried about pigging out at Sizzlers last night – today’s exercise more than took care of that problem. It was a half hour walk from the repairer to our caravan park but then another 20 min from there to Thrifty. The Ford Territory has only done 2000 km and drives beautifully – storage cubby-holes everywhere!. I told mum we’ll buy one when we win Lotto. Then again maybe I could do a swap – one used Prado for a new Ford – sounds fair! While I was attending to car matters mum put through a couple of loads of washing. We also vacuumed the van and washed the floor so, for the moment, western Queensland dust has been defeated. *Have just spoken to the repairer and they found “fine particles” in the pan when they pulled it off and assume they’ve come from the torque converter. In the morning they’ll finish pulling it out and send it to Brisbane.* The caravan park we are staying in is very popular and I have to tell them on Friday morning whether we need to extend our booking – apparently our site is the next available vacancy. Then again, mum and I might decide to stay on a few days longer in any case. After I picked up the car we started exploring Townsville and began with The Strand. It is absolutely magnificent and if Wollongong’s Blue Mile ends up anything like the Strand it will be well worth while. It extends along the whole foreshore from Kissing Point to the Marina – at least 2 or 3 km long. It’s beautifully grassed with lots of palm and other trees, has lots of seating, BBQs, picnic shelters, two netted swimming enclosures (to keep out the stingers in summer). At the top end there’s an area called the Rock Pool but it’s much more than the names suggests. Manicured lawns slope down towards the pool - it just has to be seen to be believed. Hopefully the photos I post with this will convey an accurate picture. By the time we’d explored the Strand and had hot chips for lunch 2 hours had passed. We were allowed to have hot chips because of all the exercise we had walking along the Strand. In the centre of Townsville is a huge mountain/rock called Castle Hill. We drove to the top (2.9 km) and the view in all directions is just amazing. Today we’ve seen some of the best sporting facilities we’ve seen anywhere – leaves Wollongong for dead! The place is just so green – probably strikes us a bit more forcefully because of the arid, drought-affected country we’ve travelled through for the last five weeks. The nature strips along the main roads and streets all have underground sprinklers. I only have one complaint – the cold wind that’s blowing (and has been since we arrived in Mt Isa). It’s keeping things quite cool. It’ll need to warm up quite a bit before I’ll be tempted to go swimming. However as I write we’re at a pool and mum is doing some laps – the first chance she’s really had since we left home, apart from the frigid pool in the caravan part at Mt Isa.

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.

August 11 Hughenden

After an early rising we were away from Mt Isa at 7.00 am – the guy parked next door to us did even better, he was gone at 5.45 am! I hate to say it, because I love driving through the country, but today’s drive was boring. It was quite OK from Mt Isa to Cloncurry – hilly but interesting and especially so when the sun is shining on the side of the hill you’re looking at. From Cloncurry on, it was back to black soil plains, Mitchell grass, flat, dry and pretty much treeless. Just before reaching Hughenden the country became more undulating with a few bigger hills in the distance. The drive was made worse by the very strong head-wind. We should have been towing a petrol tanker. We used 80 L to travel 400 km which sounds bad but I felt much better when we stopped at Richmond and while talking to another couple discovered that they had used 70 L to travel 250 km! Richmond is another dinosaur town like Winton. Apart from its museum, which we didn’t visit, there is a beautiful man-made lake (Lake Fred Tritton). It’s surrounded by a fabulous picnic area and shelters complete with water feature, water cannons and fitness circuit. I can well imagine how popular it would be in summer. On arriving in Hughenden we were very impressed with the town – neat, clean and tidy; probably one of the nicest of the small towns (pop. 1600) we’ve visited. Water is not a problem judging by the green lawns, parks and nature strips. The caravan park is also quite nice. Hughenden is the third of the “dinosaur towns” but there are a couple of National Parks nearby we could have visited if we’d been here longer. Definitely a place worth coming back to. After a night’s rest we’ll get an early start again tomorrow so that we can have a look around Charters Towers before moving on to Townsville.

August 8, 9, 10 Mt Isa

Day 1 of rodeo has passed! The crowd on Friday night was huge although I don’t know what the figures were.

Admission was free until completion of the afternoon events. The street parade and Mardi Gras was a big improvement on the Cloncurry Merry Muster but then Mt Isa has 5 or 6 times the population.

Last night’s events were all rough-stock (see, I’m even learning the rodeo language). Rough-stock is the term for the bucking bulls and horses. One cowboy survived the 8 second saddle bronc ride only to be dragged about 100 m around the arena when his hand was caught in the rigging before they could catch the horse and release him. Fortunately he was OK but I bet he’ll be a bit sore this morning. You have to admire the guys who enter the bull riding – the beasts are huge and the size of their horns really ferocious looking.

There is no accommodation anywhere in Mt Isa at the moment. Our caravan park has had the “No Vacancies” up for a few days and been turning away anyone who doesn’t have a booking. When we drove around yesterday it seemed like every bit of public ground had been turned into caravan or camping accommodation. No power, no water, no toilets and you have to go the Visitors Centre and pay $2 for a shower. The luckier ones are those with a shower/toilet in their vans.

We actually had a “normal” grocery shopping expedition on Saturday. Up until now we’ve only had small grocery shopping bills ($20 or so) because of the amount of food we brought from home. With the cupboards getting bare it was time to stock up again. We shopped at Coles so we could get a couple of petrol vouchers – Coles petrol is 144.9 (with voucher) while Woolies is 148.9 with voucher. I certainly hope petrol prices have dropped in Wollongong too.

We can now tick the Mt Isa Rodeo off our “to do” list. It’s been an excellent and enjoyable experience but mum and I both agree a one-day event is sufficient for our enjoyment.

Years ago, when we were living at Warroo, I was Treasurer for the Warroo Rodeo – actually it was a community expectation that the teacher was also the Treasurer. The Mt Isa Rodeo is a long way from what we used to have at Warroo.

It is the best rodeo in Australia – the state of the art, purpose-built facilities are very impressive. No matter where you sit there’s a good view of all the action. I’m in awe of the courage of the cowboys who compete – especially those who ride the bulls. There’s almost an expectation that every ride will result in an injury of some sort.

Tomorrow we start our trek towards Townsville with a stop tomorrow night at a place called Hughenden. Fingers crossed the car will make the distance – I admit I’ll be quite relieved when we get there.

August 7 Mt Isa

A very low-key day – didn’t do much at all. I think we’ve exhausted just about all the touristy things here. We went to the Royal Flying Doctor Service base because I hadn’t been able to buy a souvenir shirt in my size at Charleville. They had one here so that was good. We also had a look at a Tent House, the type of accommodation used for the miners in the old days. It has been listed by the National Trust so is quite a significant building. Rather than try to describe it I’ll post a couple of photos. Notice that the top half is made of canvas with a corrugated iron roof over the top. Rodeo is absolutely HUGE here. For a few weeks we’ve been seeing ads on TV, the local newspaper is printing an issue every day, the ABC is broadcasting from the grounds, cowboys and cowgirls are everywhere. Last night’s Bull Pit – Man Against Beast was excellent – lots of bucking bulls and horses. Today there was a Cowboys & Cowgirls Golf Day and tonight at the racecourse the Mailman Express is on – it’s a sprint race for horses over 200m with first prize being $5000. Tomorrow the real rodeo events start, there’s a Mardi Gras and street procession followed by another round of the Bull Pit and a continuation of rodeo events on Saturday and Sunday. Adam Brand and Mental as Anything are part of the entertainment and in addition there’s a Ute Muster. Like I said, HUGE! The ticket prices are fairly huge too. Last’s nights Bull Pit was $25 each for two hours. Each day of rodeo is $30. Last night they announced that it was the second biggest rodeo event in the world after the Calgary Stampede. I have the car booked in tomorrow for the Qld equivalent of a Pink Slip. They actually call it a Road Worthiness Certificate and it doesn’t need to be done annually – just when you are selling or disposing of a vehicle. It costs $66 plus GST and takes about 1 ½ hrs. I first went to the Holden dealership and was warned off by the guy on the service-desk that they are very thorough and even something as minor as a worn wiper blade can result in the vehicle being faulted. My next stop was at a workshop suggested by the caravan park so we’ll see how we go there. I wrote a letter to the Manager of the local Toyota and hand delivered it on Tuesday. As yet I haven’t had a reply so I guess I won’t – it’s probably been crossed off as just a whinge from an out-of-towner and tossed in the bin.