Christmas 2009 with Maggie, Tom and Olly

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Last I left it was the height of pre-Christmas festivity, cheery, and hustle bustle for the impending public holidays at this time of year. Thank you to Jesus for another religious celebration……….

The build up to this annual celebration was very much normal for me, being at work, swimming, keeping cool, as I clearly am too hot, with the Mitsubishi air con going full throttle ………..albeit this time like several before in the UK it was away from family, in a strange place, nonetheless where everyone speak-a-da-Englais, even if it is with an over-accentuated drawn vowel sound. Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaatte.

But there have been several distractions. Just over one week ago I had my encounter with the local pervert. Lets call him Tom, as in peeping Tom, in order to preserve their anonymity (do not ask why I bother, I feel extreme dislike for this man). Now Tom likes to curb his urges by walking, a lot, around Ayr, which is not a very big town, so I hazard a guess he circumnavigates this blot on the North Queensland Sugarcane-scape about 107 times per day. This amounts to approximately 15-20kms, which as you may appreciate keeps him wonderfully trim, hungry, thirsty and high on adrenalin. An attractive gentleman though he is not……..more like shaven head and trembling facial muscles.

Now I do not think that adrenalin is the only thing Tom was high on last week after figuring out my ‘movements’ in the past 5 weeks, and gathering information from somewhere about my working life at the hospital. It may also have extended to women’s nightwear, $50 Target vouchers, touching and urging he replace my bike with his, frequent sightings on my way to the pool or returning before work……………….a pattern began to emerge and after a very weird poorly spelt card and compliments about my appearance and general demeanour towards people (why I was thought of as ‘sweet lovely lady’ I never know, could it be the freckles I seem to be gathering at pace in this climate???), I spoke to someone who then encouraged me to report him. I felt guilty, but took Tom’s unwanted gifts by the horns and spoke to the local sergeant, who handled this most discreetly and safely. I opted for the soft option of ‘pat on the hand with a wet envelope’ and hope he does not continue the legacy in Ayr, with other female newcomers that he is WELL known for……….

So I retract from my Tom tangent, and onto more pressing issues (!) like Magnetic (‘Maggie’) island and hugging reptiles at the Billabong sanctuary 17km south of Townsville, which is shaping up to be a great, scenic, growing place for satisfying my outdoor interests.

I headed up to the island from Ayr, 36C in the shade, 403% humidity, for the afternoon ferry on Christmas Eve. After getting lost by unexpectedly exploring the Port of Townsville area (she gets the map out AFTER trying to navigate by intuition, but then is that not a male thing?? I worry……..) and appreciating the roadside rocks, I had time to see the city of 170000 from atop Castle hill, a huge craggy orange-coloured rock. Climbing this baby mountain anytime after about 9am is ridiculous (‘riduckyouluss’ for the kiwi readers) and so a short drive up there brought me to the most wonderful 360 degree views of the Burdekin to the south, Maggie, and the northern hills towards Paluma and beyond. I have never been to Capetown in South Africa, but imagine from what I have seen it could definitely be a rival! I met some folks and we exchange words and photos like all travellers here do…………

The ferry takes just 25 minutes and before long I was disembarking with my box of food and backpack for 3 days here. The bus, meeting the ferry, does not accept mangos as local currency so I acquired from the ATM at the IGA supermarket opposite some col-hard-cash for the bus that eventually returned 45 minutes later to pick the next ferry load of people up. The driver apologised for the previous mix up (I rejected the generosity of a passenger to pay my fare, on principle, and waited for the next bus!!) and promised to let me off at Magnums - but after losing his attention with a very merry American passenger about to lose his slab of beer, I got all the way to Horseshoe Bay on the North coast by accident. We returned 15 minutes later, and I eventually got to the double room I had reserved at one of the first resorts on Magnetic.

Magnums resort showed age, had faux-wooden ceilings, and reminded me of photos I had seen of Mum and Dad on Norfolk island in the 1980s when we were left at home with the Grandparents whilst they partook most likely in cheap smokes, spirits and tax free Lego sets (the latter for us kids, not them, as playing with lego as an adult without children present is almost comparable to Tom’s behaviour….but are we not just grown up kids anyway???????) I digress, again….but there will be more……

Arcadia, the location of Magnums, was sold by the ferry travel agency as being near a beach with no stinger nets and close to the ferry, flaws I thought. But how wrong was I!! I went for a wander that night, seeking a red sleigh in the sky, along towards Nelly Bay and the sunset was incredible! Then there was the gem of Alma Bay, no more than 100 steps to the north of Arcadia. This patrolled beach stood out as my favourite and when a local lady told me it is safe without nets, I felt in heaven as the sun went down, mossies appeared and day-trippers disappeared.

Day two on Maggie I got up, half-expecting Santa to have visited but he had not, and determined it would take 4 hours to walk to ‘Westpoint’. Being Christmas day, buses at 7am in the morning were absent, so I exercised the legs along through Nelly, Picnic bays and then along to the most western point of this World heritage national Park. With Christmas banter on the mobile phone/radio to occupy me, I had time to appreciate the flat dusty road, wetlands/ everglades, burnt trees, birdlife (!) and on the ears, the sounds of atheists and believers beliefs in what Christmas is. Then the texting ritual began and I felt in touch with the world in this outer suburb of Townsville, yet worlds away except for passing more than 2 traybacks!! Each with raised finger as is typical ‘hello’ from a Northerner.

A generous dousing with water and midday swim awaited my return (you sweat buckets here!!), and the afternoon was one of recuperation, reading, photo taking, and wandering a bit around Geoffrey Bay. Quiet it was, even if they said it was ‘almost booked out’ at reception. That night I met with some furry friends at the car ferry terminus, 100m along the way, and we communed with the setting light and some tourists doing some same. Skippy and his maaaaaates were very tame.

Day three, Boxing Day, I was up with the birds again and headed this time to the Nelly bay ridge walk, and onto the well known koala dens of the Forts walk (war relics), and the eastern bay amble. Again with BBC world news on the ears, and hearing about an American lady’s account of being made redundant and what she had to do to cope without a 6 figure USD salary (!), I took in some awesome views of the bays and met some hard core joggers determined to run the rocky trails. Now that is my kind of fun, but only without 2.25L of water on your back as I had!!! Hence, I walked.

So, satisfied with enough physical activity, yet dissatisfied without koala encounters and lusting after some Boxing day shopping, I returned to Townsville on the 11.15am ferry and headed out to find some accommodation and explore the city Strand. I passed some quirky architecture, even spotted NZ in the war memorial park, and settled on a modest motel, the best I wanted to afford, at 95AUD per night for a 7 minute walk to the beach. The beach was my bottom line! No point being here and not staying on or near the Strand!!! Unfortunately there are no backpackers up this area of town. The Castle town shops kept my attention for a short time (‘Sunsense’ Factor 30+ sun-cream 500mL pump for $14.99 and a tube of zinc, it is the essentials that keep me happy..…), but the search for that elusive hairdresser was not fulfilled. Even a 2nd attempt at a different shopping mall on the 27th did not prove successful. Getting it cut in Ayr outside working hours has not worked, as it all closes after 5pm! Perhaps I am MEANT to have longer hair. In fact I am growing (!) to like my sidies and ‘back draft’………

An extra day allowed me to enjoy this city, climb Castle Hill on foot like many other fitness freaks, jog it’s wonderful beach frontage and swim in the ‘Rockpool’(filtered of all nasties, and the unit was imported from SWEDEN, it is 5 times an Olympic pool size!). It is definitely somewhere I could live, further up the list than Cairns or Brisbane (yet the real estate reflects this popularity) and all it needs is to get more flights internationally and I would consider it seriously (they call it ‘Townsville International’, but that is really only for Pacific Blue’s island flights). I had a fleeting look at used cars and rental property costs, but then it was due to head, like all good country folk, to a billabong……….

The excitement of this wee break did not end there, no, especially when there was a reptile to embrace and get over fears of….and here I will let the photos tell the story. Lets say, we got more than a bit friendly ol’ Olly Python and I, and even if it is good ‘air conditioning’ I will never wear a skirt to a wildlife handline encounter again. This place is wonderful and so I am told, you get better crocodile encounter here compared to Australia zoo. Being my first wildlife park of this sort, I have nothing but praise for this. It was worth the $29AUD plus $10 koala handling fee.

What more could there be to experience here?
Until 2010 - ooh, that writes weird!

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Photos

Ross river, Townsville
Beware the dreaded Ross river mossie virus!

For climate sceptics
Just imagine if I stopped expending energy writing my blog, before taking this photo....