Around Townsville

  29/09/2011
   We are no longer ‘stuck’ in Townsville as my hearing device arrived by snail mail today. Just around the corner from the Post Office is the Queensland state rugby league supporters club, The Cowboys, the club with the bar and the big screen. We popped in to ask if, by chance they were showing the England/Scotland game on Saturday, and it seems they are. So, we won’t be leaving for Cairns until Sunday.
  After our trip into town we set off for the northern beach at Bluewater, but missed our turn and ended up at Toolakea Beach, the next beach along. Yet another beach with nobody on it, which wasn’t surprising as there was a film of oil all along the tide line. It was not fit for bathing in, certainly something we have never encountered here before. We left with the only option, a dip in the camp pool!

  30 /09/2011
  To the west of Townsville, before the Great Dividing Range, there is a smaller range the Hervey Range. It is some way out of town and then a 4K steep climb to the top. At the top we found what is thought to be the oldest known building in Queensland, now called Hervey Range Heritage Tearooms. A quirky place with a chapel used for weddings and a shed for the reception, but it’s real claim to fame is it’s rare coffee Kopi Luwak. At $50 per cup it will always remain rare as far as we are concerned. Kopi Luwak is made from beans that have passed through the gut of the Asian Palm Civet, a cat like creature that lives on the Indonesian Islands of Sumatra and Java. It seems the cat eats coffee beans, then while they are in it’s stomach, they absorb juices and protein, before the cat digs a hole and has a dump. The crap, which looks like a Nutrigrain bar, is then hand collected, dried, roasted, and sold for ridiculous amounts of money………come on……….we are talking shit here!
 No way were we paying $100 for 2 cups of  shit, so settled for a modest Cappuccino.
  There is a lookout at the top of the hill, looking out to the coast, but it was too hazy for photos…….heat haze!

  01/10/2011
  Following incomprehensible chat with family back in Shipston (it was midnight there and post barbeque) the day slid further down hill. After household chores, followed by the drudgery of shopping we went for a swim in the sea, which at the moment is affected by an algal bloom making it look as if there is an oil slick floating on the surface, not very pleasant. That was followed by a trip to the rugby league club, where we watched an inept, brainless performance by England’s finest against a Scottish side whose dire performance was marginally better than England’s although England scraped a win.
 Rubbery fish and chips on the way home…….is it bedtime yet.