We said goodbye to our new friends in Mission Beach today, and again continued the trek South. I was a little sad to be leaving, as the weather had finally turned beautiful and Mission Beach was in all it's glory.
We stopped at the 'Frosty Mango' where I had a mango smoothie, and Shane got a Mango trifle. Both were delicious! We took the opportunity to make some chicken strip wraps for lunch, while Scarlett slept in the car in the air conditioning. She woke up just as we decided to move on, so had her lunch in the car while on the move.When we got to Townsville it was so busy. There was so much traffic, and every caravan park was right on a main road. After 4 parks, we found one out of town that was very average and quite pricey, but was at least quite! We did plan on spending four nights here, as we loose the car on Friday for one whole day to the service centre. But upon first impressions, I'm keen to just stay for 3 and move on.
After we set up camp, Shane dropped Scarlett and me off at the foreshore for a swim. He was off to the Airforce base to see everyone, and discuss work talk. I was excited about hitting the foreshore's man-made beach thinking it would be like South Bank in Brisbane, only then to be very disappointed. You can't swim at the beaches here still because of the threat of stingers and crocs, so they have made a tidal pool where the water goes through mesh before entering.
The beach water is brown and muddy, and there was no sand on the bottom just a fine muddy silt. I felt so dirty after the swim, and my hair was like wire. I finally got Scarlett out with the promise of an ice-cream, so it was then off for a walk along the foreshore instead. We passed some fake coconuts that looked like art, a replica dugong, and finally an ice-cream shop only to find they were out of ice-cream :-( Scarlett settled on a slushie, and no sooner had we paid and walked out into the street, Shane came and picked us up.
On the way back to the van, we took a detour up 'Castle Hill' which has a lookout at the top. On the way up we must have passed over 100 people walking and jogging for their afternoon exercise. In this heat, I was impressed with their efforts. The view from the lookout was amazing, as we could see the whole of Townsville and out over to Magnetic Island. This was the best town lookout we have seen yet.
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| Looking out over to Magnetic Island |
When we got back Scarlett and I had the longest shower ever, and I then cooked butter chicken for dinner. We were then off to bed as we are getting up early tomorrow, something we aren't used to. We will be catching the ferry over to Magnetic Island tomorrow, and it should be a really good day.
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| Magpie Geese at the caravan park |
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