NORTH QLD ADVENTURE - DAY 26 - TOWNSVILLE.

 We both had a bit of a sleep in this morning.  We were pretty tired from our drive yesterday and the heat is getting to us a bit now as it is really quite humid up here..

 The morning was spent in the van, as we wanted to organise and book our two main excursions we wanted to do before getting home to Rocky.

 The first was our trip to Magnetic Island on Saturday, so we ran and booked our Sealink Ferry and then hired a 4WD to get around the island.  It was quite a bit cheaper to do it this way rather than take our own car over.

 Once we had finalized that, we then booked a day out on the water in Airlie Beach so that we could visit Whitehaven Island and Long Island.  I had found one with a good discount on the “Book Me” site that had 40% off, and the reviews were quite good.

 Once they were done, Steve had a reference to write for one of his past employees, some banking to do, and by that time it was 11am.  We also wanted to stop in at the reception desk at the park to get some information on where to vote, as we also needed to do that today before heading to Magnetic Island on Saturday.

 In the end by the time we left the park it was lunch time..  Our first port of call was to head to the pre polling election booth to cast our votes.  We then headed into the city again to the Information Centre to get a street map for the Art Trail around the city and also to see if they could tell us where we could find the Robin Williams graffiti art photo, I had found on line.  No one seemed to know where I could find it, so I am still searching for that one…

Love this one...

As we had to pay for parking in the city, and we had to pay for two hours, we decided to spend the afternoon walking the art trail and getting photos of all the art work in town.

 It was a pretty easy walk, but very hot and took us a good half and a half to get all bar two of them, which we needed to drive too.  Unfortunately they were difficult to get too and even when you did, they were two hard to photograph.  In fact we had trouble getting decent photos of some of the others as well, as a few of them were behind locked gates, or on the sides of buildings where you really didn’t have enough room to get in and get a decent photo, or their were buses or cars in the road, or just way too big to be able to fit it all in your lenses space.  We managed to do them the best we could.

It is actually a lot of fun, wandering the streets and allies looking for hidden treasures.   We found a couple that weren’t on the map and that was a nice surprise also..

 Once our parking time was up, we went for another drive along the Strand.  We were hot and tired and our feet were sore, so thought we would leave the walking of it until tomorrow.  We even thought we might hire some scooters and do it with the scooters.  Will have to wait and see..

Today we drove back to the Sealink Terminal to check out the all day parking as we plan to leave our car there when we head to Magnetic Island, and once we knew what we were doing there, it was time to head home as it was after 4.30pm and we had to be out by 6.30pm for dinner with Chris and Fay.

 We arrived home around 4.50pm.  I was going to have a swim, but in the end decided against it as we had very little time, and a cup of tea was calling us both.  

 We enjoyed our cuppa along with a piece of the Raspberry and Pear loaf we had bought at Rusty’s markets in Cairns before heading off to have our showers and get ready.

 We were meeting Chris and Fay at the Townsville Brewing Co. for dinner.  This was situated in what looked to be an old post office in the main street in Cairns.  They were there when we arrived.  The place had atmosphere and the service was good. 

 We ordered some drinks, and then the waitress showed us the house special.  It seemed good value as it included an entrée, main meal and a drink for $35.   Both the main meals on the special were ones we were interested in anyway, and the main meal along was $30 on the main menu, and then the entrée’s all started at around $16 each, and drinks were between $4 to $8 each.  Also we were able to share the main meal which meant we could both eat for $35 which made it very affordable.

 We ordered the Chrispy Chicken wings with Chillie Plum sauce as an entrée, and the Barramundi with polenta and corn and tomato salsa as the main meal, and Steve ordered a lemon lime and bitters as his drink.  The whole evening cost us $42 which isn’t too bad for a good night out.

We had a lovely time with Chris and Fay exchanging travelling stories and also gleaming off each other, other places of interest to visit.   It was 9pm by the time we were ready to leave. 

 They have now decided to stay an extra day, so who knows we may end up catching up with them again.

 It was home then for a cuppa, a little photo editing and it was midnight by the time we decided to turn in for the night…