Blogs from Townsville, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 2

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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Townsville January 12th 2016

Townsville transit centre was part of the bustling port and harbour area. It clearly had its act together for all the passenger traffic and had a taxi rank as part of its facilities. Hooray! It wasn't big and yellow but a taxi quickly delivered us to the Aquarius on the Beach hotel, easy to spot as it was the tallest building on that part of the seashore. The taxi driver reckoned some backhanders had been involved somewhere along the way as everything else was pretty low rise and the locals viewed it as a bit of a blot on the landscape. Nevertheless, we got a great view of the sea and beach, the harbour and port and across to Magnetic Island (Maggie!) from our seventh floor room and it suited us perfectly. The Watermark bar and ... read more
Shaded pier and stinger safe nets
Tugs and tankers
Beach art in Townsville

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Townsville December 9th 2015

Day 10 So today we left the gorgeous castaways resort right on the seafront :( and headed south to Townsville! Which I am not that keen on! It seems very built up and commercial! We arrived at the new hotel - for just 1 night! At around mid day we went for some lunch and then chilled literally in our room until about 2:30 when we went to check out the strand! Which would be fab if you have small people or even for grown ups of you had your swimmies with you! Big water playground and normal one! We were going to go to the military museum but decided $40 each was a lot to spend on something we weren't too bothered seeing! So decided to go to Queens gardens instead so jumped in the ... read more

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Townsville August 27th 2015

After driving down the rest of the mountain road to Wallaman Falls, we returned to the Bruce "Highway" (another topic) and headed south to Ingham and then continued on to Townsville. For the past few days (since Cairns) we had been hearing a squeak in the clutch which we decided needed to be looked at. We were hoping we could get the local Toyota people to fast track a look / see and possible fix. The Toyota people (Mike Carney Toyota) were quite helpful and asked us to bring in the bus on Thursday. We drove through the Townsville CBD (which was particularly quiet) and parked next door to to the Aquarium and Museum. We spent most of the day visiting these two attractions. The Museum has been recently expanded to showcase all of the Pandora ... read more
Turtle undergoing rehab at Reef HQ
Firing a cannon on the "Pandora"

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Townsville July 14th 2015

The first major town after Yeppoon is Bowen. There are hectares of tomatoes growing there and there's a farm where we always stop to buy a bag of Roma tomatoes and a bag of capsicums There are nice beaches at Bowen so we once more drove around the beaches before heading on.. We stayed overnight at Ayr. There's a lot grown at Ayr - sugar cane, and mangos are the main crops and, from reading tourist brochures, we found Ayr sits on an underground lake so water isn't a problem. Before we set up we drove about 20 kilometres to Lynch Beach. We had intended doing it last time we stayed here but Doug was told 'you drive 20 kilometres and then walk through a midge infested swamp' so we didn't bother. However, it was quite ... read more
The Rock Pool at Townsville
The beach from the Rock Pool to the city
Waterfall at the Strand

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Townsville June 18th 2015

Our camp at Lake Proserpine was in fact the Lions Camp, which hosted school camp groups, with a section at the back for caravans and tents. Although it is 20 kms from Proserpine, it did not look good on entry with every visible window covered in security mesh, however the section at the back could not be seen from the road (which really only serviced the camp and the administrators at the dam), so concerns about security quickly disappeared. There was reticulated water, power and an ablution block for travellers, and you cannot ask for much more than that at a cost of $25 per night. We were 1 of 4 caravans to make use of the facility although there were approx 30 sites available, and that meant that we had plenty of room to ourselves. ... read more
What leaves a black jetstream?
Seaforth Sunday Markets
 Camp Kanga - Proserpine camp friends

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Townsville April 17th 2015

Dropped at the bus terminal by our Premier hop-on hop-off bus, we decided to take public transport to our hostel. The bus driver grew fund of us, so while driving us to our stop showed us many interesting places we could visted in town and gave us some good tips. Our stay in Townsville started therefore already very good. Townsville is a small cute place, about 350 kilometers from Cairns. This city, has many activities to offer, such as a very nice walk on the esplanade along the beach. We enjoyed this promenade more than once and took the opportunity to swim in the natural pool at the end of this beautiful walk. We also had the chance to assist to some great music bands on a hot afternoon (organised by MC Donalds). Furthermore, did we ... read more
Python in the Botanical Garden
Beautiful butterfly in the Botanical Garden
Huge spider in the Botanical Garden

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Townsville September 16th 2014

Leaving three ways road house we turn left on to the Overlander's Way, a road that links Three ways with Townsville. The distances between filling stations and places of habitation vary but tend to equal to about 200ks.The roads on this stretch of the journey can be boring and monotonous save for the occasional road kill being feasted upon by a variety of birds like crows,kites and the elusive eagle.Traffic is also light on this stretch although several road trains pass us going in the opposite direction,( road trains can be enormous often over 55 metres long with more than 56 wheels).We fill with diesel at Barkley Homestead Wayside Inn before pushing on,it pays to keep your tank as full as possible,the next filling station could be out of fuel or even closed.We continue our journey ... read more
Hughenden
Hughenden

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Townsville June 9th 2014

Well, 5 days after we left Kadina, we find ourselves in "Sunny Queensland", minus the sun! Friday morning, we left home at 4.30am (and yes, even I got ready on time). Stopped for breakfast in Yunta where the fog was thick and the temperature down to 3 degrees! We traveled 1080 kms through to Bourke in NSW - a big day, but good to knock the k's out. Saturday, we were planning to stop over the QLD border in Augathella, but ended up making our way a bit further up the road to a quiet camp spot next to a river, just out of Tambo (couple of 100 k's north of Charleville). That's 3 states in 2 days, and everyone's still alive! Sunday found us overnight in the bustling metropolis of Pentland, about 100 k's west ... read more
It really was 4.30am!!!!
QLD border

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Townsville May 2nd 2014

Here we are in townsville, i was quite surprised at how nice this place is, a city thats not too busy, its clean and well kept. The foreshore which is called the strand, is well maintained and a delight for anyone with kids, lots of parks and pools and lots of cafes and restaurants for the grown ups. Darren and i headed upto the rock to watch the sunset. The rock is what it reads, a big rock towering over townsville, up there you can get 360deg views, awesome! on our way up the steep hill in the van we noticed lots of people walking or running up the rock, apparently its the thing to do and it looked quite challenging. Townsville /ˈturl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Townsville March 12th 2014

Our first stop was Bowen. For the film "Australia" Darwin was build up in Bowen. Now you can visit some placards about the principal filming. Photo stop above Bowen. Our lunch break was in "Billabong sanctuary" (billabongsanctuary.com.au). I call it zoo. There is a restaurant and during lunch there are some birds arround you or kangaroos. I pet several kangaroos. We got a guided tour. They showed us four animals out of cage. It was allowed to pet and to take photos of them. We pet a wombat, a snake, a crocodile and a koala. Subsequently we saw a crocodile feeding. The guided tour end and we walked alone through zoo. They have dingos, other crocodiles, birds, flying foxes and much else. I was papped with koala it cost 16 $. You have to stand on ... read more
Koala named Puzzle




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