Into Townsville

 23/09/2011
  What a really nice place is Pentland, we’ve got it earmarked for a return visit.
  The last lap of the cross country journey took us through the historic town of Charters Towers, a busy rural town with well preserved buildings. Another place we should perhaps have stayed a while, but we have done it before and we can always go back.
  On then across the Great Dividing Range and into Townsville to a family style caravan park, all manicured lawns and perfect concrete slabs----- not at all what we are used to---- bet there aren’t any frogs or crawly things in the toilets here.
 There are a couple of jobs that need doing on the van so we will be here for a couple of days.

  24/09/2011
  Our first priority during our stay here in Townsville was to get the awning repaired. It needed attention after a minor mishap which occurred a few days ago when a road sign suddenly got in my way as I was reversing into a farm track. It should never have been there really, but the result was a fractured support bracket to the awning. We got a very nice man to come out and fettle it, he did a good job for 50 bucks.
  Next priority, we needed to do a booze run urgently. Off we went with Mrs Magellan clutching her street guide to places of interest. Sometime later, after a long motorway journey ( “it wasn’t there before“) we found a Bottle-o, just round the corner from the campsite.
  Another priority was to find a club/pub/ bar where we could watch the England game (Rugby World Cup).  We had an Irish pub in mind which we knew had a sports bar with T V, but when we eventually found it, it was shut. We ended up, believe it or not, in the ‘Cowboys’ (Queensland ) Rugby League Club. No worries, they were happy to show our code of rugby on their big screen and we were happy to sit in comfort with a few beers and the other England supporters --- all three of them! England 67 Romania 3.

 25/09/2011

  Like many towns we have visited in prosperous Australia, Townsville has spent a lot of money revamping itself , turning the city centre into a lovely clean and tidy place, all shiny marble and shade. It also must be one of the few towns to have de-pedestrianised it’s centre with no problem to shoppers. The Sunday market goes ahead as usual , with just 1 street closed to traffic for a few hours. Townsville doesn’t seem to get the same touristy recognition as other towns, along this part of North Queensland, don’t know why. There is a very smart marina with millions of dollars worth of yachts and boats moored and a great water park for children on the prom. (free) The promenade is called The Strand  a really nice walk amongst palms and huge fig trees, but unfortunately not much beach. There used to be a couple of K’s of sand, until cyclone Yasi came along and rearranged it somewhere else. Now it looks like they will have to bring sand in from elsewhere to create the beach as it was. No shortage of sand here in Australia!

  We have noticed and are very pleased how much cheaper everything is here compared to W A and N T, certainly diesel and alcohol cost less  --oh yes---very pleased!!

  26/09/2011

  We have moved out of the holiday camp style caravan park to a more pensioner friendly park which is much cheaper and quieter. We were paying top dollar in the other camp, getting a jumping pillow and a water slide for our extra dollars.  Wouldn’t mind, but the big kids wouldn’t let me have a go on the slide! 

 Between moving we drove out to Ross Dam, the main source of water for Townville. The dam wall is over 8K long, holding back mega litres of water. It’s a haven for wildlife but we didn’t see a great lot, there being too much activity, as the council were doing good works around the place. We did see freshwater turtles and a few different species of wading birds.

  Back in town, we drove up a steep 3 K drive to the Castle Hill Lookout which gives fantastic views over Townsville and out to Magnetic Island. Try as we did , we couldn’t find out how high the hill is, except that “it’s a few metres short of a mountain”  You tell us! Just short of the top we parked up and climbed the rest of the way up. From one point we were looking down on to the airport and watched planes taking of way below us. 

  Now we have found this campsite, which is more to our liking, we will stay a couple of days longer, we are only a days drive from Cairns.