NORTH QLD ADVENTURE - DAY 25 - ETTY BAY TO TOWNSVILLE.

 We wanted an early start this morning as we had almost 260kms to travel today, our longest day of driving in over two weeks. 

 As we were packing this  morning, Steve saw the cassowary wandering around the caravan park again.  We missed him the previous day with no sightings of him at all.  By the time I had got out of the van, he was gone again.   

 

 We left Etty Bay just before 9am.  I was a little sad to leave this beautiful little spot, and even though it had no phone or internet reception, there was something even beautiful about that too.  We have had a memorable two days here.  It is definitely a spot I would love to come back and visit and stay for a little longer next time…

 We had a pretty good run down the highway, had to stop for roadworks several time, each time we passed through towns, they would conjure up special memories of our times spent there…

We stopped in Cardwell briefly again as we passed through, mostly so that Steve could ring ahead to the Magnetic Gateway Caravan Park in Townsville and book a van site for us.  Whilst he did this, I ducked across the road to the bakery to pick up a treat for morning tea. 

 We drove a little further down the Esplanade to a picnic area where we could park in the shade so that Steve to get out of the car and go for a quick walk.  He has been having quite a bit of trouble with his back, leg and shoulder this trip and just wanted to stretch it all out.

 

 From Cardwell we had a pretty good run to Ingham, where we stopped at the Tyto Wetlands for our cuppa.  It was almost lunch time, but we couldn’t be bothered getting into the caravan and dragging out food for lunch, especially when our morning tea bag is always packed ready for us to stop where ever and have a quick drink and bite to eat.

This was the ideal spot for a break, the surroundings are not only peaceful but beautiful also…

 Once we left here we only had a little over 100kms until our destination in Townsville.  Again we had a good run through arriving at our caravan park a little before 2pm. 

 As soon as we arrived I dropped a load of washing into the machines in the laundry whilst we set the van up,  I wanted it to be ready to hang on the line by the time the van was all set up, so that it would be dry by dinner time..

Once the van was set up, we had a bit of a chat to the girls as we hadn’t heard from them since leaving Cairns,  we were also in contact with Fay and Chris as they are also in Townsville at the moment also and arranged to meet up with them tomorrow evening and go out for a meal with them before the leave Townsville the following morning…

  It was then time to have a quick bit to eat, and as it was stinking hot, we took off to have a swim.  The park has a beautiful pool just across from where we are camped.

 

As soon as we got to the pool area, a couple of ladies in the pool called out to me saying  “we know you”.  Apparently,  they were staying at Lake Placid when we were there and I was talking to them early in our week there when we were in the pool together then also.  I had told them about Paronella Park and they had decided to pay it a visit on my recommendation and just loved it so wanted to say a big thank you.

We had a bit of a chat about our travels again since we had last seen each other, and then they left.  Steve and I found some pool noodles on the side of the pool so decided to do a bit of an aerobic workout.  Mainly we wanted to do a heap of stretches as we were both a bit stiff from the long drive.

Whilst we were swimming, we decided that it might be nice to go for a bit of a drive into Townsville and get some bearings for our adventures tomorrow…   He also mentioned that he would like to take me out for dinner… Two nights in a row as we are going out with Fay and Chris tomorrow evening…

Once we were out of the pool it was off to have our showers, and get dressed up, bring in the washing, get it folded and put away. 

 It was after 6.30pm when we headed off, firstly to fuel up on the other side of the highway and then into the city.  We are approximately 7 kms from the city CBD.

It was a pretty straight run into the city.  We had set our GPS to the CBD, so arrived in Flinder’s Street.  One of the things I love to do in any new city is check out the street art and there is quite a bit of it in Townsville, so we checkout out a couple of the lanes so that I would know where to come to photograph it the following day.  We also drove along the Strand (which was beautifully lit up) all the way along to Jezzine Barracks where there is a Military Museum and art walk.  This is another on our list of things to do whilst in Townsville.  By now we were starting to feel a little hungry so headed back along the Strand to see if we could find something to eat. 

 It was quite busy with little parking where the hotels and restaurants were, so in the end our choice of restaurant depended on where we could find a park.  We found one close to the “Seaview Hotel” and as it looked pretty nice we decided to have our meal there..

 It was actually a nice hotel, quite busy, but we found a table, and decided to order a prawn pizza and share that for our meal.  It was really nice, all home made including the base.  We were half way through our meal, when we spotted Chris and Fay, they had also eaten here with the friend… What are the odds of that happening in a city the size of Townsville.   It took us all by surprise, and we chatted for a few minutes  and they left with the words “we will see you tomorrow evening”  as we had already made arrangements to have dinner together in Townsville.

After dinner, we went for a drive out towards the Casino and Entertainment Centre.  It is also where we catch the ferry on Saturday to head to Magnetic Island for the day.

 By now it was 9.30pm, so time to head back home.  We still had a few jobs to do before we could hit the sack for the night..