August 21 & 22 Townsville

Thursday’s big news was getting the car back, at a price! The total cost of repairs was, wait for it, $1692.00 – yes, the decimal point is in the right place. That makes a total of just over $6000 spent on the transmission since July 2006. It seems to me we might need to give some serious thought to getting rid of the Prado when we get back. Originally we had hoped to be able to sell the 4WD after a few years and have enough to purchase a car however the increase in depreciation in the last couple of years has probably put paid to that strategy. (Sharon, please tell John we’d appreciate his advice when we get home.) The good news is that the whine has gone but they identified another worn part which will need replacing down the track The only thing we did yesterday was to visit the Tropical Queensland Museum. The most interesting section was the Pandora Gallery which was dedicated to the ship of that name. As I’m reading about the Mutiny on the Bounty at the moment it was really interesting. The “Pandora” was sent out to the Pacific to roundup those who were responsible for the mutiny. A number of the mutineers had been captured and the ship was on its way back to England when it sank off the northern tip of Cape York. The wreck was discovered some years ago and the museum has on display numerous artefacts from the ship as well as information about sailing and ships of that time. There’s also a reconstruction of the front of the ship and an outline on the carpet of the size of it. Today was our first “tropical” day since Emerald. While we’ve had a few hot days, this morning was hot and humid. I decided to clean the car inside and out and lost a fair bit of fluid in the process. Morning tea was provided by the caravan park so we joined in – cheesecake, scones and cream and lots of other yummies were supplied free of charge. It also gave everyone a chance to meet and have a yarn. As we didn’t need lunch we decided to go in to the Rock-pool and have a swim – the first time we’ve been able to because of the weather. Mum had her final swim at the Long Tan Pool – she loves it because it’s heated (about 27 degrees). Back on the road tomorrow, destination Proserpine. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed Townsville and been very impressed of it as a place to live. I’m not sure what it would be like in summer but then we won’t be here, so who cares. It would certainly be high up on our itinerary if we ever come this way again.

August 19 & 20 Townsville

Up until recently Townsville consisted of two twin-cities, Townsville& Thuringowa. Thuringowa was a new development area but the Qld Government recently forced through Council amalgamations so now the two are combined into “Townsville”. Yesterday the Council released their budget for the next year have increased rates by 15%. Obviously there are no government imposed limits and controls like we have in NSW.

There is a lot of development going on in and around Townsville – yesterday I counted seven buildings in the city with cranes on top. We’ve travelled through a few parts of the city where major road works are in progress. Actually the roads in Townsville are excellent. All major roads are either two or three lanes and there are cycle-ways along these major roads as well. Lots of intersections have turning lanes for cyclists.

While Townsville has The Strand as its beauty spot, Thuringowa has an area called Riverway. This consists of a walking track along both sides of the river, a cultural centre, a sporting stadium and a lagoon complex. The lagoon complex consists of two major swimming pools and a smaller wading pool but these are not ordinary swimming pools. (See the accompanying photos.) Yesterday we went down to have a look and were suitably impressed. We also went to have a look at the Cowboys’ Dairy Farmers Stadium and discovered that it actually owned by the Qld Government. We weren’t allowed inside so had to be satisfied with having a peak over the fence.

Today we visited one of the three Botanic Gardens in Townsville. It was called the Palmetum and as you may guess from the name was mainly about various palm trees. It was very appealing and attractive and also contained a memorial to the two Blackhawk helicopters which collided and crashed during a training exercise with 18 soldiers being killed.

We decided to go to Jupiters Casino for lunch – the Casino was nothing special but we had to become members to get the lunch discount.

It looks like the car will be right for Friday so we’ll leave here on Saturday and stay at Proserpine on Saturday and Sunday before moving on to Mackay for five nights. After that the next stop will be Rockhampton, then Bundaberg and Hervey Bay.

August 18 Townsville

We were up early this morning to catch the 7.45 am ferry to Magnetic Island. It’s about 8 km from Townsville and the trip takes about 20 minutes so the day was still young by the time we got there. Allan loves being a Senior and can’t wait until mum is too – the adult fare (mum) was $29 while mine was only $14.50. I shouldn’t complain too much because just about every time there’s been a Senior concession I’ve been able to get it for mum as well – rarely does anyone ask to see the Seniors Card. Having said that, Sunsea Ferries weren’t going to give the concession without sighting a card for each of us!
We both thoroughly enjoyed Magnetic Island – we were totally unprepared for the rugged nature of it – lots of granite outcrops and steep hills. The bus service runs around the villages and for $3 each (Seniors price of course!) we had unlimited on/off travel for the day.
We began at Picnic Bay and walked to a lookout with a fabulous view over parts of the island and across towards Townsville. On the way back down we met three Dutch backpackers who were excited because they’d been in Australia for 8 months and just seen their first snake!
We walked over the hill and back to Nelly Bay where the ferry terminal is. Mum was a bit concerned that walking was going to take too long but we saw a number of information signs and things we wouldn’t have seen if we’d taken the bus. From Nelly Bay we climbed over the hill to the next bay and a place called Arcadia. It was on the shore of an attractive bay with a beautiful sandy beach – mum was happy because she found a lot of coral and shells.
Over the next hill and we came to one of the most attractive places on the island, Alma Bay. It was only a small beach but with attractive rocky outcrops coming all the way down to the beach at each end. The park behind the beach was beautiful with a green lawn with picnic shelters and a playground below lots of shade trees.
The next bay, Horseshoe Bay, was a bit far to walk to so we caught the bus and were very glad we did as it was quite a climb. Horseshoe Bay was also a very attractive place and the largest and most commercial of the villages/towns.
When we got to Horseshoe Bay we were in mobile range and there was a call from the repairer. He had an exchange torque converter but Brisbane had informed him that our torque converter wasn’t really faulty and it appears the problem may also be in the gear box. He’d indicated last Friday that he and his off-sider weren’t completely convinced that the whine was coming from the converter. They thought it was, but couldn’t be certain. As a result he’s going to “open-up” the gear box and see what’s going on. My reaction was something like, “Oh no!” He said he could put the converter back in but if the noise was still there the whole thing would have to come back out again. We’ve got our fingers crossed but it doesn’t sound good.
We just heard on the news that over 80 000 people attended last week’s Culture Fest. It was the biggest ever!
These Queenslanders are just so parochial. Last week when the women’s 4 x 200 relay team won gold it wasn’t the Australian team; it was the team of “four Queenslanders”. Emma Snosill’s gold in the triathlon has been won by “Queensland, Gold Coast competitor”. Question just asked on the news – “Why are Queensland athletes dominating the medal count?”

August 15, 16, 17 Townsville

A bit of catching up to do in this report! On Friday we decided to travel north to Paluma Range National Park – as we have unlimited kilometres on the hire car, why not use them? It was 60 km north of Townsville and then 22 km west, 18 km of which was uphill, narrow and winding. Paluma Range NP is the start of the Wet Tropics, a series of national parks extending north to the Daintree. For a rainforest, it was quite dry but there were some good views down over the coastline and out to sea towards Palm Island which is an aboriginal reserve. Yesterday we went into the city to visit Reef HQ and were very pleasantly surprised. It’s a bit like Sydney Aquarium except that it’s devoted to the reef. It was fascinating to see the reef fish and other species close up in a number of aquaria. While we were there we saw a Dive Show in the main tank – a scuba diver fitted with a microphone entered the tank and provided a terrific commentary and insights into the variety of sharks and other creatures. At 3 o’clock there was a feeding tour and the guides took us around the various tanks as the fish were fed. It was an absolute frenzy once the food was tossed in to the two larger tanks. All in all a very interesting and entertaining visit. Mum went to have a swim but unfortunately the pool was due to close – have to check the times more carefully. Townsville has been celebrating its diversity of cultures this week in the form of a five-day Culture Fest. We decided to check it out and were very glad we did. I counted over 25 different food stalls and we only sampled three of them. Apart from the food there were performances from different groups and a range of market type stalls. Today we began with breakfast at Sizzlers – an all you could eat affair for $14 – needless to say we didn’t require any lunch. There were two Sunday markets in Townsville today – one was largely second-hand junk so we didn’t stay there long but the main markets in Townsville’s Mall were quite good and we were able to pick up some reasonably priced vegies. We were pleased to find a stall selling tropical fruit so lashed out and bought a sample of each. The photo shows what we bought: the large dark green fruit (back left) is black sapote; the yellow pieces are canistel; on the right are carabola or star fruit; the two brown pieces are sapodilla and the prickly looking ones are rambutan.

August 14 Townsville

Another “look around” day. We began by checking out a couple of the warehouses nearby – just across the road is a shopping centre for warehouse type businesses – Sportscene had lots of bargains, especially shoes and clothing. I bought a pair of $119 shoes for $79! Mum bought a set of dumb-bells for $20. She’s been on the lookout for a set since she saw a bloke in Emerald exercising with some. Toyworld had a massive building filled with just about everything you could imagine – Jack’s birthday was taken care of.

Next we wanted to have a look at the centre of the CBD and found it a bit sad, very sad actually, and definitely a long way inferior to Wollongong. The Townsville Mall is the subject of discussion just as ours is and many of the same options are being debated. Townsville doesn’t have any major department stores like Myer or DJs although there is some redevelopment about to be carried out. We were very disappointed with the CBD as there is just nothing to attract people to the city centre – markets are held in the Mall every Sunday and are apparently quite popular. We’ll find out on Sunday.

One of the big things in Townsville’s favour is parking. Apart from a number of parking stations there is a huge area just across the river where free parking is available. A free bus service runs to the city centre but as it’s only a short walk across a footbridge we didn’t wait for the bus.

Mum shouted lunch at the Cowboys’ Leagues Club which is in the Mall - $5.50 each and was quite good. It also gave us a chance to rest up and watch the swimming on the big screen.

Mum had a training swim at the pool on the Strand and did almost as much as yesterday. Given she hasn’t been able to swim for five weeks there’s a bit of catching up to do. I timed her over 200m breaststroke in the 25m pool and she was happy with 4 mins 40 sec.

Yesterday we came across a water playground on the Strand but the water is turned off on Wednesdays so we went back to have a look today. Absolutely brilliant. The kids there were having a great time even though it wasn’t very hot. Right at the very top is a huge bucket and when it fills with water it tips over and pours the water out. See todays photos!

We’ve decided to stay on here an extra four days so will now leave on Sat 23^rd. There’s enough to keep us occupied and I don’t believe the car will be back on the road by Monday. Tomorrow we should get a better idea of the repairs time line. Where we’ll go when we leave is up in the air, probably back to Charters Towers for a few days – after that, who knows?

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.