We left Cairns on another brilliant sunny day – no clouds and going to be 27 degrees. The first part of this trip to Townsville, 3 ¾ hours away was new, as when we came up we turned inland at Tully to go to the Atherton. Once more it is sugar cane everywhere. Everyone seems to have a plantation. We travelled through Gordonville, Babinda, Innisfail and down to Tully, where we thought we might have coffee. Well, no. The main street was very quiet and no coffee shops. Back past the IGA and a few surrounding shops. Yes, there was Evelyn’s cafe but, no thanks. So we left the town with the big golden gumboot with a green tree frog climbing it and headed on to Cardwell where we had coffee and sandwiches. Cardwell looked beautiful today, cloudless blue sky and the big Hinchinbrook Island just off the coast. So hard to believe that this little town was devastated by Cyclone Yasi in 2011. A picture in the cafe shows a satellite image of the eye of the cyclone, stating winds reached 420km an hour. Amazing that there are still some old houses and tall palms that obviously withstood it. The marina area we remembered is so sad, really needing some developer with buckets of money to turn it back into a great launching pad for Hinchinbrook and the other outer islands.
Then it was down through Ingham to Townsville.
We worked out it is the 4 th time through Townsville and 3rd time staying here. This time we were staying down near The Strand – the waterfront. An older style but comfortable villa and good we could drive to the door to unload. I had worked out this was our 13th different accommodation. We needed to shop for dinner and so went back to our old stamping ground of Castletown, 10 mins back where we had stayed before. Paul went to bbq for us and met a couple of women sitting having a pre dinner drink. One worked 6 months of the year for the Flying Doctor, in various places and the other was an author who donated the proceeds of her books to the Flying Doctor. She had written a book – Women of the Gulf – and lent it to Paul to bring back to our unit and look at. (We took it back the next night and bought a copy.) After dinner we went for a walk to the end of the street and around the foreshore – an area they called The Fortress. This was lit and had sculptures along the path. There was a lot more but it was late and we were tired. Another time we must see more.
On Wednesday we had decided to go to Magnetic Island. It is only 8 km off the coast and dominates the view from the foreshore. A very well organised system makes it easy to do. We drove to the terminal, parked and caught one of he jetcats out to the island. They run 18 services a day. It was a beautiful day, the water was like glass and the trip smooth arriving at Nellie Bay. On Magnetic Island they have a hop on/hop off bus that makes it easy to get around. We had been expecting it to be like Hamilton Island and very commercial, but were pleasantly surprised. There is a big Peppers Resort at Nellie Bay along with a marina, but elsewhere it is much more low key. We caught the bus from Nellie Bay, around to Arcadia and Alma Bay, up over the ridge and then down into Horseshoe Bay. We got off here, had a walk along the beachfront, past a few cafes and accommodation places. It was beautiful. On the water side there were some hire places for paddle boards, kayaks etc. There was a lifesaver on duty at a flagged area of the beach and a school group trying to lash 2 rafts together before trying to paddle them. Very funny to watch 2 totally different groups – one with most cooperating and the other with the teacher trying to encourage participation but most just standing watching. I had decided that I would have a swim and Paul was going for a run. He set off for Radical Bay and a 40 min run and I went into the water to swim laps of an area with buoys marking the patrolled section. I did more than 35 mins and was the only one in the water.
The water was 23 degrees and very enjoyable. After some lunch we caught the bus back to Arcadia and looked at Alma Bay. The tide was out but it was still one of the most beautiful beaches I have seen. Here the water was crystal clear and so inviting. We then caught the bus back to Nellie Bay, chatting to another couple who were doing the same thing. It was a very pleasant trip back on the jetcat to Townsville and the car.
We had to shop for the next 3 days and had found a much closer supermarket which was good.
We packed up on Thursday but as it was a shorter drive today, spent time driving up The Castle. This is a very prominent rock a few blocks behind the waterfront. It was 2.9km up a very steep winding road. We passed so many people walking up, some pushing strollers! The views of Townsville from the top were spectacular. We then went down to The Strand for another wander. Such a lovely spot.
Jottings & Blottings 