Townsville

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Today we travelled by Greyhound to Townsville. The weather decided to tip it down, still it didn't matter, we were on a coach watching another cheesy film (Dr. Doolittle 3!). We arrived in Townsville late afternoon and were picked up by the hostel in their mini bus. The driver obviously thought he was taking part in the grand prix and sped round the town, flying over the speed bumps. We clung to our seats, the rucksacs flying about the van before coming to an abrupt halt outside our new home for the night - the Civic Guest House. We didn't get the most welcoming greeting...in fact we barely got a grunt of acknowledgement! The receptionist was more interested in having her cigarette than us. She did manage to mumble where our room was.

Our room was, well, what you might describe as a prison cell, complete with sliding door. We couldn't bear to be in it any longer than necessary and mounted an escape of Prisioner Cell block H (...or at least that's what our latest abode feels like, complete with an unwelcoming, manly looking receptionist who looks like she could be one of the inmates!). We took refuge in the library for free use of the internet.

Townsville is a bit of an odd place, a bit of a come down after being in the Rainforest. Thankfully it's just a bed for the night to break up the journey before getting down to Airlie beach to start our 3 night's Tall Ship cruise of the Whitsundays tomorrow! Still we managed to find a nice cafe for lunch called The Balcony, which offered unusual dishes. It was so nice and reasonably priced that we thought we might go back there in the evening for dinner. However, it seems that that would not be an option...we were told that they didn't open in the evening because customers didn't feel comfortable walking down the mall at night!!! Slightly disturbed and intrigued, later when looking for alternative evening meal eatery, we did come across few strange people milling around the Mall...it is the only place I have actually felt unsafe in Oz so far.

For our dinner we went to the Thai International restaurant, which served excellent Thai food - would throughly recommend it. Other than that, would really only recommend a stop in Townsville to go to Magnetic Island - sadly we didn't have time.

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