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Published: August 21st 2011
Monday 15th - during our stay in Townsville we were determined to have a swim in the splendid rock pool and today we prepared a picnic and drove to what has become our favourite location – The Strand. We were able to park right next to the pool and easily carried our picnic, our books, towels etc to the grassy poolside. We’ve always carried a second set of picnic chairs in the car and have often made good use of them. Today we made good use of them again as we relaxed watching the comings and goings by the pool and enjoying our picnic. Eventually, after reading for a while, we ventured into the pool and it was lovely. It’s so big that you never have trouble finding a swimming space and the water temperature was extremely comfortable. We simply “lounged” the rest of the afternoon away, drip drying in the warm sun so we didn’t have to change before driving back to the caravan. In the evening I phoned my sister Daphne (who lives in Melbourne) and we had a lengthy chat – it was a bit of an expensive ‘catch-up’ as our mobile phone charges seem extortionate for anything
other than a call lasting less than a minute! Unfortunately Daphne’s computer is broken so she can’t keep up to date with our travels through our blogs.
On Tuesday we thought we might as well do much the same things as Monday so, again armed with a picnic, we made our way to The Strand. The rock pool is at the furthest most point for us but at the start of The Strand there are a couple of interesting tourist attractions that we wanted to visit. The first, an aquarium, was disappointing in that the entry fee was very expensive and signs made it clear that concessions would only apply to Aussie card holders. We quite like aquaria but we’ve seen plenty on our travels so decided to go to the Aboriginal Cultural Centre next door. By contrast, this was free and it was excellent with a large display of aboriginal art and artifacts. The staff were very attentive and we spent some time talking with the centre’s director who was an absolutely fascinating fellow. On we went to our favourite picnic spot next to the rock pool and had another really relaxed and enjoyable time. By mid-afternoon we
were ready to leave but first we wanted to visit a bird reserve that had been featured in the Townsville literature. It was in a location called Town Common, about 3k away, and was about half way along the Parrapenda Peninsula that we had visited on Sunday. We turned off on the Town Common road and immediately saw a collection of birds that fascinated us - there were brolgas, herons, egrets, magpie geese and even a jabiru. The main viewing areas were still some way away so we made our way carefully along the gravel road to visit the more easily accessible bird hides. The whole area covers many, many square kilometers and is made up of wetlands, swamp, grasslands, woodlands and beaches and so offers a range of habitats - so much so that over 300 species of birds have been recorded here. The people of Townsville are extremely lucky to have such a natural resource virtually on their doorstep. It was magnificent and the three hides and one tower that we visited all gave fantastic outlooks across the wetlands. It reminded us a lot of the wild areas at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Gloucestershire – a
place that we love to visit especially in the winter – although Town Common is many times bigger and of course is completely natural and there is no charge to enter.
Back at the caravan we made preparations for an early start in the morning. PIE was long overdue a service and, through a series of recommendations, we had settled on a small automotive company at Currajong – they were one of the companies we were going to use to have the brakes done and had booked them to do the brakes and the service. But they had rung us to say they couldn’t get the brake parts and it was they who had recommended Garbutt Brakes who had done such a good job with the rear brake shoes and handbrake cable last Friday. We thought we could still trust them with a service and had agreed to get the car to them as soon after 8:00am as we could manage so Wednesday morning was a bit of a scrabble but we managed to get there for about 8:15. We had identified a nearby shopping centre – Castletown – much grander than the small one we ended up at
the other day. It was about a 20 minute walk away but the lady in reception offered to drive us there so we were at Castletown by 8:30. It is a really big and modern centre so we had no trouble passing some time window shopping before we found a small café for some refreshment. More window shopping followed and I was able to buy a new swimsuit with some socks and undies In Targett’s sale so I was very happy.
At about midday we rang the garage but they said there was still an hour’s work to be done so we found yet another café for some lunch and then strolled casually back to the garage. The car was ready so we anticipated another successful mission – until we were presented with the bill!! It was exceptionally high and Graham questioned the cost of an air-conditioning belt that had been fitted. As it happened, that was quite cheap and so were the labour costs. We had requested a “full” service so there were quite a few parts involved, oil, filters etc, but they must have been charged at “top notch” rates to reach the final amount. We have
had five different services done while we’ve been travelling – three of them with Nissan dealerships which we expected to be dear – but this was at DOIG AUTOMOTIVE in CURRAJONG and it was by far the most expensive. Clearly we will not be recommending these people to anyone and it also shatters our perception that a good back street garage is a better bet than a big dealership. It slightly took the edge off our wonderful time spent in Townsville but at least PIE seems to be running well and, in theory, should last us for the remainder of our trip without any more servicing. Slightly deflated, we returned to Castletown to do some grocery shopping in Woollies and to fill up with their extremely cheap diesel which, with the discount we get, is probably the cheapest fuel we’ve bought since Melbourne many, many months ago!!
The evening was spent back at our favourite location – The Strand. We had noticed some signs advertising a Cultural Festival and had seen a lot of preparations going on during the week. It was to last from Wednesday ‘til Sunday but as we are back on the road tomorrow (Thursday) we
thought we’d catch the first night – and we are so glad we did. It was due to open at 5:00pm but at that time it was still very quiet with just a few people trickling in. We paid our $5 each and strolled around the various craft stalls and also the many food stalls that were up and running. We hadn’t eaten yet so we bought a couple of baked potatoes and very good they were too. While we were eating them we noticed that more and more people were beginning to arrive and many of them immediately took up seats in the huge auditorium specially erected for the event. Assuming they knew something that we didn’t, we also took up a couple of seats and sat for some time waiting to see what was going to happen. After what seemed to be a very long time, and we think much later than scheduled, a couple of local dignitaries formally opened the event and the first “act” was introduced. They were a family group of aboriginal musicians and dancers and they were magnificent – very much worth waiting for. They performed for about half an hour and were followed
by more dance troupes performing traditional dances and music. Most were from indigenous tribes within Queensland but there was a ladies’ group from Papua New Guinea. A group of muscular young men who lived in Townsville but were of Tongan origin were especially popular (can’t think why!). There was also a mixed group originally from Niue but who lived in Townsville - they were all brilliant and the crowd which had filled the arena and had overflowed onto nearby grass areas gave them all a tremendous ovation. Time simply flew by and, knowing that we still had some preparations to do before we moved on tomorrow, we left at about 8:30pm. Graham did some preparations mainly “in the dark” while I made sandwiches for our onward journey. We still didn’t know where we would be heading tomorrow – only that we would head north - but we both agreed that Townsville had been a really pleasant surprise (with one exception) and we would probably be calling in again when we return back down from our adventures further north.
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