Townsville, QLD

Cyclone Yassi all the way down!

Hi it's been a long time between blogs. we ran into trouble with both the computer and camera breaking down, which meant that we had to replace both. Which has to be said that we didn't need the costs of either as we are always on a budget, needless to say that this broke the budget for about two months!

All my written material has been sort of lost in 'cyber space' so we have photos that have been left on the old computer. All this means is that we now have a new computer which requires us to educate ourselves in order to be able to put everything back on the new computer. At this point we are still waiting for the camera to arrive from Hong Kong that Daniel purchased from Ebay which we are to collect from Australia Post in Hervey Bay in time for our tent trip to Fraser Island!

Anyway we drove away from Bramston Beach and headed south to Kurrimine Beach to meet up with Stew and Les who had camped on the beach foreshore at the council run caravan park. We had another great couple of nights together and joined some other folk on the road at happy hour. Parting again promising to catch up on our way down, once Stew and Les were home in Brisbane around the 20th October. Weather was still great in the high 20's, making it still great for sunbaking.

Arriving at Townsville, setting up camp, which was very quickly now! we headed straight into town to do the beautiful Esplanade walk by the sea, taking in the wharf, marina and public lagoon which is filtered every 3 hours. Our way back to camp we took a wrong turn and headed by car

into Castle hill. We were supposed to have walked this to the top, on Monika's suggestion. We failed, because we were in the car. Getting to the top the view was spectacular, 360 degree view of Townsvile was magical. The Esplanade, the swimming lagoon, out to the ocean to one side and then round to the left, the airport, plane in view taking off into the sky, RAAF Base, further more to the left, the Stuart mountain range, the urban spread of the town spotted with homes that housed families that could live here! (not only Melbourne). Stunning views really. I spotted a large roaming goanna at the top of the hill, which was so lovely to see.

We headed back to camp for happy hour, more laughs and a dip in the Bluewater Creek, no crocs here....so they say as we were up higher in the mountain ranges. The following morning Daniel and I headed by bike onto a road that took us out up to the Black Range. The ride was great, the road following the route of the creek that we'd swam in. I have at this point to mention, that from this point downward heading south there were beautiful creeks, channels, lagoons that harboured fresh water lillies. Pads of pink, lilac, purple, blue, white shrouded with northern fauna nesting in those shallow creek beds. It was a great time spent in Townsville but unfortunately not long enough. At this stage of the trip we were starting to run out of time as we headed down the east coast.