We packed pretty early today and left the caravan park
before the check-out time of 10am (for a change). Breakfast this morning was had at Lissner
Park in Charters Towers and you should have seen the bat-life in the park. It was amazing, there were hundreds of bats
hanging in clusters from so many of the trees in the park. We were sure to look up with our mouths closed! After heading out of town, we made a brief
stop at the Burdekin River where there is a sign post outlining the years that
the river has flooded and the heights to which it reached. A few years back in 2009, the river got up to
over 20 metres high, very surprising considering this river currently has
hardly any water in it! We proceeded to
Townsville, around 150km north east, then chose a caravan park at Rowes Bay
(opposite the beach) and set up camp.
Our first move was to take a bike ride into town but after getting
around on The Strand, the wind was so strong that we turned around and came
back to the caravan to pick up the car.
Eventually, after driving around for quite a while, we found a Post
Office to return the kids completed school work back to their teacher. Next was to find a big retailer to buy a few
parts for the kids bike. Sami’s bike
seat has lost all of its padding and for weeks she’s been riding around on an
extremely hard seat. Zoe’s handles were
all sticky and tearing too so a bit of maintenance was required – thanks
Kmart! We also did our usual drive around
town to see a few sites such as Jupiter’s Casino and the Entertainment Centre
before heading home for dinner and a quiet night in.
Friday was another day of no schooling. Josh fixed up the bikes and we ventured out
and about for the day. We rode out on
the jetty, stopped at the water park along the beach (kids weren’t up for a
swim) and checked out the local cenotaph and memorial. Townsville has a lot going for it. Further along we stumbled on the Aquarium,
‘Reef HQ’ and the kids were pumped to check it out. We parked out bikes and went on it and were
pleasantly surprised at this place. The
variety and number of fish, sharks, turtles, rays, lobsters, crayfish,
sea-stars, etc. was phenomenal and the layout and interactive activities were
perfect. There is even a turtle hospital
which we toured through, currently housing three turtles in bad health. After spending about 3 hours or more here we
ventured out (to the dismay of the kids) to find some lunch. Next stop was right next door to the Aquarium
and it was the Museum. Again, the kids
had a blast and were hesitant to leave, trying to coax us into coming back the
following day. Inside was an exhibition
on the Pandora, another area about Dinosaurs, a make-believe ship wreck where
the kids had to find certain paraphernalia, a large room of activities where
the kids could interact to learn about the brain’s function and how it tricks
us and lastly there were many, many touch screens with interesting snippets of
information that the kids were keen to sit and watch (it must have been the
space shuttle seating they had to sit in to watch the screens that made them
enthusiastic). 5pm had approached us
without us even noticing – we were all having so much fun! We made the trek back to the van on our bikes
and the fresh air was just what we needed.
Saturday morning we decided that the kids really should do
some school work. We understand it is
the weekend but we don’t really take a lot of notice of what day it is,
especially when they have so many week-days off. After a couple of hours, we went to play in
the pool for a while and then dried off and went out to explore. We drove up Castle Hill which is a large hill
not far from the main area of town. You
simply can’t miss it. From the top is a
lovely view over the town and out across the ocean to Magnetic Island (an
island that we are going to skip on this holiday). It appears to be a popular place to run /
walk so be careful if ever you decide to drive up or down this hill – there are
people everywhere. We grabbed a bit of
shopping afterwards and raced home to have a quick bite for dinner. We had to rush as we were going to the footy
to watch the Cowboys vs the Panthers and kick-off was at 6.30pm – to which we
only just made. The sunset again tonight
was gorgeous as you will see in a picture below. The Cowboys ended up flogging their opponents
but it was still a good game to watch and the support for the Cowboys was
around us everywhere. After the game we
had one more look from the lookout at Castle Hill before coming home and
tucking our little ducklings into bed.
Sunday morning and Josh was up bright and early. He decided to try and get some nice pictures
of the sunrise from Castle Hill.
However, while we all slept and Josh drove to the top of the hill, the
clouds had surrounded him and there was very little sun rising to capture a
shot. He came back home and joined us
all for breakfast before tucking into a bit more school work with the
kids. It was a pretty miserable day
weather wise which meant a great day for school. Around lunch time, we ate and then went for
another drive about time (no point riding our bikes today as it looked like
rain was on the horizon). After a bit of
prompting from me, Josh took us to the local cemetery which also included the
Townsville War Cemetery. The cemetery
was massive and even that could be an understatement. We drove it to begin with and that too took a
while. The kids hung out the window
trying to read the headstones while Josh drove slowly by. By the time we got back to the front gate,
Josh pulled over so we could have a bit of a walk around. This afternoon, we also drove quite a bit out
of town to Mt Stuart Lookout. This mountain
is much higher than Castle Hill and the view is amazing. It really shows just how large the entire
town of Townsville is. Looking north you
can see all the way to the Paluma Range Wet Tropics, and way out in front of
you is the Great Barrier Reef – stunning views!
The temperature was much cooler, as expected, when you are standing
approx. 560 metres high amongst the clouds.
After getting back to the van, the kids coerced Josh into a hit of
tennis while I prepared dinner and tidied up our home. Life is just so good…
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