Advertisement
Published: August 19th 2011
Friday 12th – This was another early start as we were anxious to get the brakes done on the car and to get her back as early as possible. So we arrived at the brake specialist’s garage soon after 8:00am and asked for directions to the nearest shopping centre where we thought we could pass a couple of hours. The young lad who was about to start work on the car straight away (a good sign) pointed us in the direction of Currajong which he said had a cinema complex. Thinking this would be a fair sized centre, we walked the 2 kilometers or so to find that a cinema complex was virtually all it had – and that didn’t open until 10:30!! To be fair, there was a small supermarket and three or four other shops but only one, a newsagent, was open. The supermarket included a small deli which served coffee so we bought a couple and a newspaper and sat just passing the time and watching the complex awaken. Fortunately I had my latest book and Graham found some crosswords to do in the paper as time dragged on. Eventually a nearby bakery opened up and then a
hairdressers and at about 10:00am the last shop, a book shop, ‘burst into life’! At 10:30 Graham rang the garage to see what progress had been made. “We’re still working on it mate” came the response. Knowing what their hourly charge was, we began to think that the eventual cost was going to be as dear as was quoted in Darwin!! We strolled slowly back to the garage and spotted PIE still up on the ramp so we retreated to a small café, virtually next door, and ordered pie and chips each as an early lunch.
As we finished our lunch we just caught sight of PIE hurtling down the road at breakneck speed – was that good or bad? We strolled to the garage just as the car careered back into the yard – she’d been out on a test drive and everything was fine. New brake shoes had been fitted and the existing handbrake cable had been reconditioned so we didn’t have to pay for a new cable – probably the most expensive thing to have to buy. So we were absolutely delighted when the bill was presented as we had only been charged for one hour’s
work and the cost of new brake shoes plus a couple of small additional extras - what a bargain! It put the quote we had been given by Nissan in Darwin to shame and supported the general Aussie view that a good local mechanic is a much better bet than a dealership.
We’ve still got to get the car serviced and that’s booked for next Wednesday at another local garage so fingers crossed that PIE should then see us through to the end of our adventure. But today we just returned to the caravan and basked in the results of our successful mission with a casual end to the day. Tomorrow, though, after a lot of city centre refurbishment lasting two years, Townsville is celebrating its re-emergence as a major tourist destination with a day of markets, entertainment, fashion shows and the like and we hope to spend some time in the city enjoying all the festivities.
On Saturday 13th we weren’t in any rush and had a very casual start to the day. But eventually we made the journey into the city centre to see what all the fuss was about. It was quite busy and the
main streets in the very centre had been blocked off in preparation for all of the activities. We found a handy car park and were amazed that we didn’t have to pay – weekend parking in the city centre is free. We strolled to the Information Centre from where we could see rehearsals going on for the big fashion show later and musicians were setting up equipment in various places. Many stalls were already up and running so we strolled around those and also visited a couple of the main shops that caught our attention. Graham needed a new pair of trainers and we were able to take advantage of a shop sale and buy a really good pair at a very reasonable price.
We realized that most of the entertainment was scheduled for later in the day so we made our way to The Strand where we intended to have a picnic lunch - I had prepared some sandwiches earlier. But our attention was drawn to an event taking place by one of the beaches next to The Strand. It was a major “Outrigger” competition and we had arrived at the time of the men’s six-seater sprint final.
The security gate at the caravan park
seemed a bit over the top but it kept us safe from the terrible people of Townsville!!!!Outriggers are like canoes but with what appears to be a support bar along the one side which makes them more stable in rough seas. The final commenced with eight teams participating in a 400 meter sprint with the last two being eliminated. Then another sprint took place with another two teams eliminated. The next sprint eliminated only one team so the grand final was between the three teams left. It was quite a close thing with Malaluca becoming champions. This event was followed by a ladies event which was won by Sunset Bay and then a mixed “seniors” event won by Coconut Beach. It was obviously a major tournament as there were teams there from all over Queensland. The chap who was giving a running commentary on the races suddenly appeared by us and started to interview us! He was thrilled that he’d found a couple of English tourists who were interested in the racing but I had to admit to him that I didn’t know anything about ‘outriggers’! Still, he welcomed us to his beautiful city and we found it easy to agree with him that it seems a very pleasant place to live. After a short break
there followed a “marathon” with 15 teams paddling over a 7 kilometer course. It took about an hour to complete and this was won by Townsville much to the delight of the local supporters. It would have been easy to stay and watch the whole tournament which wasn’t scheduled to finish until 5:00pm but we needed to get back to the caravan to prepare for our evening out.
So at about 5:30pm, having showered and tidied ourselves up, we made our way back into the city and found the same car park as this morning, but now it was virtually packed. There was far more hustle and bustle everywhere and the main streets were already alive with entertainment and even more stalls than this morning. First though, we found a nice pub cum restaurant and a little old lady directed us to some quiet tables up some stairs onto an open verandah at the back of the bar. It was delightful and we indulged ourselves with their “special” – chicken parmagiana with chips and salad – all for just $10 each. We treated ourselves to glasses of wine and even they were “two for one” so we couldn’t go
wrong. By the time we got back to the centre everything was in full swing and the locals were clearly supporting the event as it was extremely busy. There was plenty of street entertainment, a huge variety of stalls and many of the shops had remained open to take advantage of the huge crowds. We spent quite a lot of time just meandering and I was able to spend a few dollars so I was happy. We got back to the caravan at about 9:30pm after what had been a pretty varied and enjoyable day.
We had another casual start on Sunday morning but we had planned to visit the “normal” Sunday markets which, as it happened, took place where the Saturday celebrations had occurred. On the way into the city, however, we were held up by a huge cavalcade of tractor units from road trains – there must have been a hundred or more. With a large police escort they made their way into the city centre blaring their horns, waving to on-lookers and attracting much attention. We still don’t know what it was all about but it was a very colourful event. Today we parked on The
Strand side of the city and walked back to where all the market stalls were in full swing. They were much the same as the ones at yesterday’s festivities but we still enjoyed another wander round. Afterwards we drove to the Rock Pool end of The Strand and found a restaurant where we sat looking immediately over the pool towards Magnetic Island beyond. As restaurants go it was idyllic. We both ordered Chicken Caesar Salads and they were huge – far bigger than we had anticipated with large portions of chicken and hard boiled eggs and al overwhelmed with salad. We both saved some of the chicken and took it away for later – it was delicious. We drove to the other end of The Strand and stopped by a large fountain and near to the War Memorial. It was a splendid bit of parkland overlooking one of the many marinas that Townsville seems to have. Whilst strolling around the park and admiring yet another splendid war memorial, we spotted a large Gelataria (ice-cream shop) and couldn’t resist spoiling ourselves and found a shady spot in the park to eat our many flavoured ice-cream concoctions.
Back at the caravan,
our hopes for a nice quiet, relaxed evening were shattered by our new neighbours as they set up their unit next to ours. A huge, giant of a man, who turned out to be as meek as they come, was accompanied by a loud-mouthed chubby woman and two screaming girls of about 11 and 9. All of the mother’s conversations were at “yelling” level while the kids responded in kind and seem to squabble incessantly. They were on our “blind” side so we could easily avoid passing the time of day but, unfortunately, we couldn’t avoid hearing them. We just turned our TV up a bit louder than normal! We got our own back a bit when we had a “Skype” conversation with Sarah, Darryl, Barb, Tony and Enid who had all congregated at Sarah’s house for the “webcam” chat. It got underway a little later than planned and we were conscious of our necessarily loud voices and the 10:00pm (our time) noise curfew. But we carried on anyway although the chats probably didn’t last as long as we would have liked. It was great to be able to chat, to catch up with all the gossip and the latest
development in S & D’s garden (a chicken hutch!) and, of course, to see everyone – isn’t technology wonderful?
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0367s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
