Blogs from Townsville, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 6

Day 45, 26/10/11 We were talking about what we were going to do today over breakfast and decided that it wasn't going to be a lot. We were incredibly bored and the place was filthy, so we decided to leave a day early and head back to Townsville for one night. We caught the 1:35pm ferry back and booked into the same lovely hostel we were in just a few days ago. We met a girl from London who was in our room and we headed down to the harbour and had a good old chin wag over an ice cream. We headed back to the hostel for dinner and a shower before heading back down to the harbour to the Casino. The last time I was in a Casino was in Las Vegas but now ... read more

22/10/11 Tennant Creek to Townsville. Hello Everyone! The last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind as we have passed from the hot, dry, arid lands of the NT and central inland QLD to humid rain-forests in Far North QLD to mild Maryborough a few hours north of Brisbane where we are now! I donned a jumper and long trousers the other day for the first time since leaving Perth's winter. I must say that as much as I complain (frequently and loudly!) about the cold of Melbourne winters, it was a little bit of a relief to be able to enjoy slightly cooler weather at last. It rained non-stop during our first three months and has not rained not at all in the past three months…until this week! But I like rain! And ... read more

Yesterday after a drive from Charters Towers we arrived in Townsville. After we had set up we went to have a look around town. We found the Reef HQ. It is the Aquarium for the Great Barrier Reef. It was fantastic. We saw many of the things that were on the reef-turtles, leopard sharks, sting rays, dory fish, small crocodiles, angel fish and other bright tropical fish, coral, sponges, seaweed and other great things that you would find. We watched the feeding of the fish. I was really fascinating how they all went for different types of food. Some even fought for the food. The sting ray glides along the ground and just picks the food up in their mouth. My favourite part was going out to the turtle hospital. Volunteers work there. They keep sick ... read more

Next installment of the Queensland blogs! This area was one of my favourites in Australia so far, as I saw so many completely amazing things. I was up early to catch my 7.45am bus to Townsville, but it wasn't too bad a journey as I managed to sleep most of the way. It was nice and warm still when I arrived in Townsville, so I went for a walk around town to orientate myself, though alas, most of the shops were closed or closing. It became apparent quite quickly that Townsville was a bit of a quiet place to be on a Monday. Still, my walk allowed me to collect some leaflets from the tourist information place and plan what I wanted to do for the next few days. After a lot of thought, I booked ... read more

We have been amazed at the number of people who spend a great part of their lives travelling around Australia. Of course, like us, there are plenty of people from overseas who are fascinated by Australia and everything it has to offer the inquisitive tourist. We were aware, too, that a lot of Australians aim to complete “The Big Lap” at some time in their lives. But the colossal number of Aussies spending time on the road (not all of them “lappers”) has completely taken us by surprise. There are far more than we remember from our last trip eight years ago. Caravan parks are regularly full reflecting the ever-increasing numbers that are following their dream. We often have a bit of fun trying to identify the type of traveller we encounter and we are becoming ... read more