It was with a sad heart that we said goodbye to Fay and Chris this morning as they head off towards the Northern Territory. I am feeling so envious of their lifestyle for these next couple of months. We also packed up this morning...
We are heading home today also....
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| Packing up has started |
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| Getting the van ready to hitch onto the car |
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| Sad feeling leaving this lovely park this morning. |
We have had such a busy time since we have arrived that I hadn't even had a chance to photograph our van park. It is a lovely spot, right across the road from Lake Placid...
If you are holidaying in Cairns, then I would recommend this caravan park. Neat and tidy, lovely amenities and in a great location... 15 minutes out of the city and close to the beaches and tourist attractions.
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| Our van park in Cairns |
They had a great camp kitchen which we used a couple of times, lovely pool, and right across the road from the Barron River.
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| Pool Area |
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| Wonderful Camp Kitchen |
And right across the road from Lake Placid
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| Tropical rainforest in front of Lake Placid |
The gardens at the park were lovely and well kept...
This plant was growing in the pool area... Fay and I were quite fascinated by it. It looks like a pineapple but I think the colour is wrong and it had numerous little ones growing from it.
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| Another one of those exotic plants found in North Queensland |
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| this one was taken for you Fay |
We left Cairns around 8.30am and headed for Babinda where we stopped for morning tea with these lovely folks.
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| Paul and Elaine |
We stayed with Paul for a couple of nights on our way up to Cairns. Elaine was back in Rocky, after having a bad accident a month ago and shattering her shoulder. She arrived back in Cairns on Wednesday night so we had to stop in and catch up with her, otherwise I don't think we ever would have been forgiven. She has been at us for years to come up to North Queensland to visit them.
We probably spent a couple of hours with these guys and got thoroughly spoilt, with fresh Babinda Cream Buns for morning tea. They had also been out picking produce off the farm that morning so we really benefited from all of these.
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| Fresh from the farm. |
We left Babinda around 11am and headed south. Our goal was to get to Townsville tonight..
It was a long slow trip... We were held up in quite a bit of road works. We stopped at Cardwell again for a late lunch. This place is so relaxing, I even managed a bit of a nanna nap before we took off again.
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| Nanna Nap time |
Before we left Babinda, Paul had told us about Frosty Mango and recommended that we stop and try their ice-cream. Appartently he stops there each time he passes though and always gets one.
We saw them on the side of the road and thought we would take his advice and try them too.
We were not disappointed. They were huge and full of flavour.
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| Our ice-creams |
Steve had a rum and raisin one with fresh mulberries
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| Rum and Raisin & fresh mulberries |
I also had a rum and raisin, but I had fresh mango
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| Rum and Raisin and fresh Mango |
We arrived in Townsville a lot later that we had planned. The road works were horrid today and we were held up quite a few times for 20 minutes or more at a time. We finally got into Townsville around 5pm. We unhitched the van as quickly as possible and headed down to the Strand....
It was definitely worth the visit. What a beautiful area of Townsville, and it was alive with people enjoying life.
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| The Strand was really busy for a week night |
We enjoyed a lovely long walk along the Strand, unfortunately the photos aren't the best because by the time we got there and were able to take a few photos, it was dusk.
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| War Memorial on the Strand |
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| Lovely rotunda on the Strand |
They had some really awesome kids playgrounds on the Stand also, a water park, and swings and slides.
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| The large bucket on the top would fill with water and then tip it over everyone. |
The kids were having so much fun.
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| Loved this fish slippery slide too. |
We ended up taking a stroll out along the jetty, there were so many people fishing out there, not that they appeared to be catching much, but it was so nice to see so many people making use of this beautiful area in Townsville.
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| The pier we walked out on. |
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| Steve walking out to check on the fishermen. |
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| Out on the jetty |
He just wishes that he had a rod to join them.... we really were enjoying our time down here and were definitely in no hurry to head back to the van.
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| Looking back down the jetty towards Castle Hill. |
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| Just on Sunset |
After coming back in off the jetty, we decided to take a stroll along the beach.
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| There were palm trees planted on the beach everywhere |
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| Sunset at the Strand - Townsville |
We were still there at dark... it all comes alive with coloured lights at night.
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| The trees are lit up... |
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| Night time at the Strand |
We needed to put some more fuel in the car before heading home, well that became an ordeal, as I had left the iPad back at the van.... Any money we may have saved by fuel vouchers was soon lost as we drove around Townsville looking for a Woolies Fuel station.
It was almost 9pm by the time we got home, and we still needed to eat dinner...
Actually Townsville looked to have quite a few places that looked interesting and were worth visiting, it was a pity that we really had no more time, we will definitely be going back to explore some more.
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