2009 Travels | This Adventurous Age

October 15, 2021
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2009 Travels July 20 to 23

MONDAY 20 TO THURSDAY 23 JULY TOWNSVILLE

John had to be at the Land Rover man at 9am.

It was a cloudy day, with a strong breeze. I wondered if it would rain. Took a chance, anyway, and washed the bedding, then sent some emails.

John was back before too long. The man didn’t have the part Truck was found to need, but would have it in tomorrow.

Townsville was so well served, compared to many other places we’d been. The old saying that we got used to, during our time in the NT, came to mind – the NT: not today, not tomorrow, not Tuesday, not Thursday, next train, next truck…..very true it was too.

After lunch, drove to the Aitkenvale shops, where I’d discovered there was a bowls shop. There was also a sewing supplies shop nearby, which provided me with good browsing, whilst John was making decisions in the bowls shop. Not that I had any ulterior motive for directing him to this one…..

I bought some threads for my Hardanger sewing. John ordered himself a set of bowls. Not a cheap exercise! He wanted them colour yellow, so they had to be freighted up and should arrive on Thursday or Friday. I decided that, when he was picking them up, I would go back to the sewing shop and indulge some more, having shown great restraint today.

John’s thinking was that yellow bowls would make it easy for him to see where his efforts were, from the other end of the green. I had two thoughts – neither of which I shared with him: that they would be an easy target, and, the way he’d been bowling lately, they could stand out as an embarrassment. Sometimes, I really did need to censor myself!

We had a quick look at merchandise in the Rivers clearance centre, but were not tempted.

John went to the bank and withdrew $500 cash to pay for Truck repairs. There was a big dent in the bank account, after today.

I extended our stay here, for Thursday night. Cost $31.50.

Cooked the continental sausages bought on Saturday, for tea, with mashed potato, bacon and eggs. Later, they gave me fearsome indigestion.

TUESDAY : John was off to the Land Rover man for 9am.

It was another cloudy but windy day. I did our clothes washing, and sewed some quilt blocks.

**Our other Townsville site….don’t ask me why it was so hard to back in here!**

John returned with Truck fixed – I hoped! A new vacuum pump had been fitted, with double gaskets this time. It had an oil change and some other oddments fixed too. All up – $520 for repairs.

John phoned the bad mechanic back in Melbourne. After some discussion, he was told that the warranty on the pump that had been installed just three months ago, would be honoured. I would believe that when we actually saw the money, I’m afraid.

After lunch, drove to the Strand again and did a fair walk. Then it was to the Castletown shops, so I could buy a small but good chef’s knife, to replace my good one that the handle had broken off, yesterday. That cost $50.

Grandson phoned to tell us that he’d read the fifty books for the Read-a-thon. Not bad for a six year old. So we would now have to send his $10 donation, plus the surprise Sodor train wash set.

We need to go back to the bush – haemorrhaging money in Townsville!

WEDNESDAY: We had a quiet start to a day that was not as cloudy, but was more humid, strangely enough.

Walked to the local shops and spent up big on postage. Sent postcards to various family and friends, a Hinchinbrook Island brochure to each of the sets of grandchildren, telling the story of our day there, and despatched the train wash and $10 to grandson. Australia Post was $25 richer.

**It used real water……not sure if his mum knew that!**

John phoned his cousin M, who was still in Cairns. It might be another couple of weeks before they began to head south again. I was now quite certain that we were not going to get that far north, this trip. It was going to be an accomplishment just to get away from Townsville!

Son phoned me about a new job he’d taken. Sounded very exciting: in a new field for him, traffic management, but doing the familiar role of business development. Bit of a growth industry, that.

Friend M phoned – from Halls Creek. The trip up the Canning Stock Route had gone well, and she’d had a great time. Only had one flat tyre on the Troopy, and that was just as she was driving into Billiluna Community, not on the CSR proper. Yet again, the Dunlop Roadgripper tyres that we swear by, but others look down on, proved they can really handle the rough stuff well.

She reported that they’d had no rain over the three weeks. The fuel drums they’d ordered from the Capricorn Roadhouse were at the drop point, as arranged, and hadn’t been raided by other travellers. The couple she was tagging with had no vehicle issues, either. So she reckoned that she was now an experienced sand dune driver!

The diary I’d requested she keep for me was more a book than notes, apparently. She would mail it to home. The plans were now to go to the Bungles again – the other couple had not been there before, then on to Kununurra.

I was so happy that the adventure had gone well for her. But given the events of this year, I was so thankful we hadn’t tried it too.

THURSDAY: A quiet morning, followed by early lunch. Then we hit the shops – what’s new?

At Aitkenvale, John collected his new bowls. They were the ordered bright yellow – and the symbol on each featured a smirking crocodile. Very satisfied looking it was, too. (Every set of bowls has to have a unique symbol). This one couldn’t have been better than if he’d specifically chosen it! Yellow crocs…..

At the sewing shop, I bought a metre of my special embroidery fabric and some patchwork quilt pieces, for future projects.

To the Fish Co-op to stock up on barra and threadfin salmon.

There was a nasty accident at the corner where the V8 track had been. A truck and a 4WD ute had collided. Flashing emergency lights and vehicles galore.

Grocery shop at Castletown and at the butcher.

Getting all the meats and fish into the little freezebox was a real exercise in fitting things in gaps. The real challenge would come when just one frozen portion had to be extracted again, from the mass. The fridge ran for ages after all the additions, making me think all sorts of worrying thoughts.

I phoned Forrest Beach and booked us into the caravan park there, for three nights. John wanted to play in a big bowls tournament that was on in Ingham over the time, and had listed himself as an emergency, in case someone dropped out. If he was not called up, he could go fishing.

October 14, 2021
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2009 Travels July 17 – 19

FRIDAY 17 TO SUNDAY 19 JULY TOWNSVILLE

Friday I had a quiet morning, after my several laps of the park. Read, sewed.

John had booked for us to play bowls in the afternoon – without consulting me. I’d have preferred a long walk along the Strand.

We got there for a 1pm start. but found it was actually 1.30. So there was some rather boring waiting around.

We both played somewhat mediocre games. Every time I see John bowl, now, my idea that these “straight” bowls do not suit him, is reinforced. Quite often ,when the bowl leaves his hand, I can’t tell which way it will go, which way it was meant to go – and I was certain it was mostly not where he intended. All over the shop!

John wanted home “done” fish and fries for tea.

Saturday I walked up to the local shops before breakfast and got the weekend papers.

Spent the morning reading those.

After lunch, we drove to the Strand and went walking. John took his camera and spent some time taking photos – and then, subsequently, deleted most of them before I had a chance to look at them.

On the way back, called in at Castletown – to the small area of shops, not the big complex – and went to the butcher there, for the first time. They had an excellent range. I bought chicken schnitzels, a couple of lots of speciality sausages, some very nice looking bacon. John picked up a jar of chilli pickled onions and added it to my lot. When it was all tallied up, I thought the total price was quite high, then it was established that the jar of onions cost $11…..John was not best pleased. I told him to really savour eating them….

Tea was chicken parma.

Sunday: Just the usual pottering about in the morning.

John had booked us in for afternoon bowls, which he said started at 1.30. He’d got the times wrong on Friday, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that he got this wrong too. It was a 1pm start, so we cut it very fine! Friend A phoned while we were driving there, to find out where we were. I didn’t know why they couldn’t be consistent with their start times, though.

Today’s game was a regular event on the Jubilee bowls calendar. Mexicans Vs Cane Toads. To an Australian, that is probably pretty self explanatory, but for those who are mystified, Mexicans is how Queenslanders often refer to Victorians, who come from the south, and Cane Toads are only found in the tropics, so refer to Queenslanders. There were a lot of Victorians who winter in Townsville and play bowls.

It was a teams of four game and I played as a second. They stopped at 4pm and put on a BBQ tea straight away – salad, sausages, thin pieces of steak. I did not enjoy the time spent sitting with the team we’d played against as my opponent was a real oaf. Contrary to the etiquette of these things, he did not offer to buy me a drink, so I was the only drink-less one at the table, whilst he happily quaffed the beer I’d bought him. He talked constantly, even while eating, so sprayed part-chewed food all over the table. His talk wasn’t even interesting. The time passed slowly.

In the team he was drawn in, John had played skip, didn’t play well and was beaten by a woman skip – that really hurt! So, he was receptive when friend S told him he had to change his bowls. Hooray – finally! He mulled it over then announced, later, that he wanted new bowls as soon as possible, so he could get used to them before getting home.

So, it looked like bowls shopping would be added to the Townsville agenda.

After the bowls BBQ, tea was not needed.

Along with 3.6 million others, at night we watched the final of MasterChef on TV.

October 13, 2021
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2009 Travels July 16

THURSDAY 16 JULY CARDWELL TO TOWNSVILLE – AGAIN

There was no rush packing up, but we were still away by 10am.

The drive south was uneventful. The crazy drivers with their caravans were all still going north….

I felt like we were getting to know this section of the Bruce Highway quite well….too well.

I’d phoned the Rollingstone Caravan Park again, about 9am. Just my luck to get the less mentally well endowed of the reception staff. She was not helpful. I said I wanted to book a powered site for a week. According to her, all the sites I was interested in (i.e. on the flat) were booked. There was no way, to my mind that all these sites – at least 60 of them – were all booked out, for all the week. What it did mean was that she either couldn’t be bothered – or didn’t know how – to juggle bookings of one or two nights, around, to free up sites. It was not that hard – I knew from experience.

She did offer me a site, which I knew was one of those that sloped quite strongly down to the billabong edge. We’d watched vanners having great difficulty setting up on those sites, where it was almost impossible to get a van level, and very hard to hitch and unhitch. But she didn’t tell me it was a sloping site!

At that point, I gave up. I wondered how much business that particular person had cost the park?

John was not so deterred. He intended to call in there, as we were going past, to see if he could do better in person.

But, at 11am, as we were driving, the Rollingstone park phoned us. They had just got round to checking the answering machine and dealing with messages. Not a great way to do business. It was the dopey one again. I explained that I’d already phoned this morning, having given up waiting for them to respond to messages. I’d given my name, both on the answering machine and this morning, and explained we’d been there a few weeks ago. And so on. Obviously, she was not good at assimilating information. As we started to go into the whole rigmarole about level sites and availability, again, that was the point at which John gave up on them, too, and said to forget it.

We pulled into the Woodland Holiday Park, because we were going past, on the off chance they might have a vacancy. I did get a bit embarrassed, rocking up to such places without a prior booking, at this time of the year. But we scored a powered site for a week, just like that.

I asked if we could be sited away from the cabin we’d been near before, and explained why to the receptionist. She seemed very interested to hear about that problem and as if it was new to her. But I couldn’t believe there had been no previous comments from people staying longer than we had been.

Again, our site cost $27 a night on the weekly rate. It was on the other side of the internal road from where we’d been before – nice and large. Maybe not enough shade, but it was alright.

John seemed to have mislaid his knack of directing the backing in easily. A site this big should have been easy, but he had me to-ing and fro-ing a lot before he was satisfied.

After setting up, just relaxed for the rest of the day.

I made salads for tea.

October 12, 2021
by wendyviney 3 Comments

2009 Travels July 15

WEDNESDAY 15 JULY CARDWELL

The alarm went off at 7.15am, half an hour later than I’d set it for. It was getting old and unreliable – or maybe it was just out of practice? So we started the morning in a bit of a rush and thus John forgot his camera, but we were at the office at the marina by 8.30.

It was a nice surprise to be told that today was half-price deal day, so we were to get a refund credited. ( I’d already paid by card, back before we had to postpone due to the fridge trip to Townsville.) So, the day trip only cost us $59 each, and that included $10 for lunch.

There were 39 people on the big cat boat, including four from WIN TV, who were going over to film a Postcards segment, and two hikers who were being dropped off to walk the Thorsborne Track from north to south. One of the other women on board was a housekeeper, off to work at the Eco Resort.

It was a really lovely trip across the bay, past Garden Island, which was the island in the film Nims Island.

**Nims Island – in real life, Garden Island**

There were great views of the coast to the north, after we left the Marina. The mountainous nature of this part of North Qld was very obvious.

For once, we had a perfect weather day for our adventure.

We were not alone on these lovely waters, passing several yachts. I could – almost sense the attraction of exploring places via this medium. There was certainly no shortage of sheltered anchorages.

The boat went straight to the Eco Resort, at the northern tip of Hinchinbrook Island, at Cape Richards, which we went around, to view that and Orchid Beach beyond it.

The Eco Resort was just visible, tucked in amongst the vegetation of the hillside. It was certainly unobtrusive.

**Cape Richards; Eco Resort buildings barely visible in the bush at the back of Orchid Beach**

We pulled up – briefly – at the resort dock, where the driver fed a couple of fish to a huge grouper lurking there. It obviously knew the boat well! The housekeeper got off, another man got on, and a small boat was attached to the back of our boat.

We motored back and around to Missionary Bay.

The mountainous spine of the island was very obvious and its highest peak, Mt Bowen.

Missionary Bay and Mt Bowen

Also obvious were the mangroves that thickly lined the more sheltered shores of Missionary Bay.

The mangrove lined inlets off Missionary Bay provided a sheltered anchorage point for yachts – but I thought the sandflies must be fearsome at nights. Not sure there could be much dusk sitting out on deck in places like that.

Our boat entered a channel in the mangroves and we followed this narrowing waterway for some distance.

Eventually, we came to a point in the mangrove channel where, due to depth, the cat boat had to be moored. Now the purpose of the smaller boat we’d been towing became obvious. Half the party were offloaded and went off in this. Ten minutes later, it was back, and took the remainder of us further upstream, to a landing where we disembarked.

We had an hour to explore, before we were to meet the little boat again at the landing.

Once, we were told, there used to be a five minute walk from here, across to Ramsay Beach, but a “ladder” that protected the dunes had been damaged in the last Wet. So now it was a 20 minute walk that took us along the part of the Thorsborne Track.

The others who set out with us took a short cut across a sand blow to the beach, but we had a very pleasant walk through the bush, to where the trail emerged at the far end of Ramsay Beach.

The long sand expanse of Ramsay Beach was superb, and peopled only by our fellow day trippers.

Being time limited, we couldn’t spend too long on the beach. I hoped I’d taken some photos that did the place justice – it was seriously beautiful.

Then it was back the way we’d come, with the final part of the walk on the built walkway across the mangroves that bordered the channel we’d motored up.

We got to go back to the big boat in the first group. The little runabout ran out of fuel part way, but he had spare fuel. We waited on the big boat for the rest of the party, then motored back out the mangrove channel to Missionary Bay and back to the Resort.

Lunches were given out on the way back to the Resort, for those of us who had elected to pay for this, rather than BYO. It was good, too – a well-filled meat, cheese and salad wrap, muesli bar, apple, bottle of water, box of fruit juice. John ate his immediately. I kept mine for later, wanting to keep looking around and not be distracted by food.

We all got off at the Resort jetty and were directed to the dining deck/bar and pool side area.

It was all very tropical and seemingly low key. There was a view through the surrounding trees and bush, to the sea.

The pool was very attractive looking, but there were too many people around looking on, for me to want to venture in.

I sat on the open air dining deck and had my lunch, relaxing with the laid back ambience of the place.

John and I walked down the steps from the Resort, onto Orchid Beach and walked along this small beach to the big rocks at its far end.

**Resort was this close to Orchid Beach**

We could see schools of little fish in the water and I saw a dugong surface briefly, a few times.

We spent over an hour, wandering along the beach and back.

**Eco Resort, from end of Orchid Beach – well hidden**

Eventually we meandered back to the pontoon jetty and sat watching the guy who had driven the small boat show some of the kids from our group how to jag small fish – which he then released back.

The Resort was closed to overnight guests because of Wet Season damage to some of the paths to the accommodation units and water damage to some of the “tree top” units. The place normally had three cabins for guests and fifteen of the elevated units, tucked in amongst the trees. It seemed rather strange to me that the damage from back then hadn’t yet been fixed, if it prevented having overnight guests which would have to be the main source of revenue.

Parts of the place looked a bit tired, too. It doesn’t take long in the Tropics! The pontoon jetty had been resurfaced for day trip use, but apparently needed completely replacing. In short, the place needed a substantial injection of funds. Someone said it was for sale. It would be sad if it did not open again as a resort, because it really was a very attractive place and the environment was superb. It also had the advantage of being not too far from the mainland, so didn’t need a long boat – or helicopter – transfer, to get to it.

We left the Resort at 4pm, and were back at Port Hinchinbrook Marina just before 5pm.

**Marina – houses with their private moorings**

The whole trip was excellent value. I felt privileged to have been able to visit Hinchinbrook Island. It was certainly worth the effort we made to – eventually – get here!.

On the way back to camp, went to the organic place again and bought some more of their yummy pasta, and bananas.

John decided we would have take away fish and chips for tea. The nearby shop that we went to was a bit poky and old-fashioned, but the fish and chips were very nice, and reasonably priced.

This morning, while waiting at the Marina to get on the boat, John phoned his Land Rover man in Townsville. He booked Truck in with him again, for Monday next. The man told John that the brakes were not likely to fail altogether on the way back, though I could not be totally confident about that. I didn’t like the thought of the “altogether”, particularly in combination with the Cardwell Range. Hi-ho, it’s back to Townsville we go!

John thought we should go back to Rollingstone. It was by the sea, and he knew I loved the pool there. I tried to call them at 5.30pm and only got the answering machine – a bit sloppy, I felt, at the height of the tourist season. Left a message saying I wanted to make a booking from tomorrow and asking that they call me back.

I had some doubts about staying at Rollingstone, anyway. John had already phoned his friend S and arranged to play bowls on Sunday, and he also wanted to play on Friday. So that was already three drives into Townsville. I said Rollingstone was just too far out. It would also be a problem if work on Truck was not finished in one day. We couldn’t agree. I thought The Lakes would be more central if there were transport issues. John did not like it there, he said. So nothing was settled, this night.

October 11, 2021
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2009 Travels July 14

TUESDAY 14 JULY CARDWELL

I got up quite early, and did two loads of washing. There was not enough line space – mainly because the park provided such a little amount of same. I ended up having to string some line under the van awning to hang some of the clothes there.

John drove up the street and picked up the bread rolls I’d ordered yesterday. After I’d made up the rolls for lunch, we went driving.

First stop was to check out the Port Hinchinbrook Marina area, to make sure we knew where to go tomorrow morning. This was just south of Cardwell itself. It was a canal-style marina and residential development. I remembered that it was the cause of much controversy, due to environmental concerns, when we came through this way in 1998. It did not appear to have really taken off since then. There were a number of lavish, big houses, with their own moorings, the resort itself, and a few shops. It did not look to be thriving. Quite a few places sported For Sale signs and there was a lot of empty, unsold blocks of land.

On the assorted literature obtained from the Information Centre, the Cardwell Forest Drive appeared worth doing, so we headed westwards out of the township, to tackle that.

First stop was the carpark for the Cardwell Lookout, from which we did the 700 metre walk that took in all three lookout points. The views made all the effort worthwhile.

**Port Hinchinbrook marina entrance, with Hinchinbrook Island beyond**

There were attractive grass trees along the pathway, and an unusual (to me, anyway) cycad.

The walk did involve a lot of stairs. I was definitely fitter – and lighter? – than when we walked in the Warrumbungles a couple of months before.

The next stop on the drive was Attie Creek and Falls. It was not all that easy to follow the track into there – signposts were scarce. Where the road ended, the creek was a pool, and not flowing. We decided not to bother, in the heat, with the 1.2km walk to falls that would most likely be dry, anyway.

We had our lunch at the pleasant Attie Creek picnic area. There was lots of bird activity, so we got out the binoculars and watched for a while. Spotted a lovely Yellow Robin.

Drove on round to the Spa Pool. Getting to this did not involve a hike.

As we were driving there, on the dirt road, straddled a nasty looking long, thin snake, sunning itself on the road. We couldn’t see behind, with the rising dust, but as far as John could feel, we hadn’t run over it. I just hoped it was still back there, and not hitching an angry ride hooked up in Truck somewhere. We were not about to stop right there to investigate, but when we reached the Spa Pool parking area, I was careful to look carefully before I got out of Truck!

The Spa Pool was an unusual, pale, milky blue colour. Again, the creek there was not flowing. There was lots of small, hungry seeming fish in the pool and we watched these for a while. The pool did not look at all attractive for getting into! Supposed it would be different when there had been good rain and creeks were flowing again.

We completed the loop drive through pretty valleys with small farms and emerged back onto the Bruce Highway about 10kms north of Cardwell.

Back to the van. Then we set out to walk along the beach to the jetty. It was hard going, with sloping, soft sand, so we didn’t go all the way, and walked back along the road rather than the beach.

Tea was sticky pork ribs, with rice. Very, very nice.

This morning, as we were about to leave the lookouts car park, for a moment there were no brakes at all on Truck. John now thought the vacuum pump had really gone, this time. Absolutely unbelievable!

After stewing it over for the rest of the day, he now decided that from here, we would go back to the Land Rover enthusiast – you guessed it – in Townsville AGAIN.

October 10, 2021
by wendyviney 3 Comments

2009 Travels July 13

MONDAY 13 JULY TOWNSVILLE TO CARDWELL 160kms

We left the caravan park just after 10am, heading north again over what was becoming our well travelled route.

This morning, John seemed a bit slow with the outside pack up. Then he was diverted by the people on the site opposite, who wanted to talk about where we’d travelled. Great timing! When I’d finished all “my” packing, went and did some of the outside stuff, to try to move things along.

On the way north, diverted on to the side road to the Rollingstone Caravan Park, to buy a couple of pineapples, but drove all the way down to near the entrance in order to turn around. The caravan area – from a distance – looked nowhere near as full as it was when we were there.

Just south of Ingham, we came up behind a Bushtracker caravan. He was one of those who holds everyone behind up, as he dawdles along at about 70 kmh on the no-passing sections of the highway, but then speeds up on open sections when others try to pass him. John tried to get past him in Ingham, where there was a section of dual lane road, but the Bushtracker pulled across in front of us, to the lane we were in. As there was no reason for him to do so – he didn’t pass anyone in front of him, we could only assume he didn’t want us to get past him. Maybe he saw it as some sort of competition? Idiot!

A little further on, we came to a steep uphill section, with a passing lane. John held back a bit, to let a double semi that had caught up to us, get past. The truck then caught up to the Bushtracker, with still some passing lane left, enough for him to get past the van – which promptly pulled across in front of the truck! We saw the flare of lots of lights as the truckie stood on his brakes. From what we could see from the back, it was a rather close shave. Unbelievable. After that, we slowed down to make sure we stayed well behind the clown and didn’t get caught up in any mayhem he might cause.

Further on again, we were passed by a 4WD towing a large van. He took a risk, passing us on a winding, hilly section of the Cardwell Range road. Then we could see in the distance, he got impatient with the moron in the Bushtracker, who was back to dawdling along, and passed him – on double white lines and approaching a blind corner. No wonder there are accidents involving caravans! There had been one such fatal crash somewhere around here, a couple of months ago.

We had been consistently surprised at how many Qld drivers totally ignore white line markings. Both the fools we encountered today were towing Qld registered caravans.

The Beachcombers Holiday Village in Cardwell was our destination. After discount, our powered site cost $24.75 a night.

The sites in this park were quite strange. They had small slabs that would be adequate for small campervans, but the sites themselves, overall, were far too small for most vans. The reception lady said they were not using the central two rows of sites, except occasionally for small campers, therefore we shouldn’t have problems accessing our site. As we hadn’t yet seen it, this sounded a bit ominous.

It did prove to be a hard site to get on to, because of the narrowness of the access lane and the lack of depth of the site. We had to drive Truck back and forth over the high and jagged edges of the slab on the other side of the roadway. Bad for tyres. Having an extended length drawbar – originally for the bike carrier – had its benefits, but it did mean we needed a bit more wiggle room, sometimes.

**Cardwell site and slab with raised, rough corner**

At book-in, we’d been offered the hire of a co-ax cable to plug in for TV. It was a plus that they offered that before John spent time fiddling around trying to get a signal in the usual way. But there were not many other positives in this park.

The place was over the road from the beach front, but its associated motel units had all the views of that. The caravan park section was at the back – right by the Bruce Highway.

I was not happy with the female showers. There were four of these, with a common drainage channel. Unfortunately the wash from adjacent showers went not into the drain, but the other way, across the floors of the neighbouring ones, and pooled in the end shower, in a rather revolting mass. It certainly kept me from wanting to linger in any shower! But there were a couple of beautiful, dark green tree frogs up in the wall corners, and geckoes around the windows. The paper towels by the handbasins ran out early on our second day there, and had not been refilled by the time we left. Much too slack.

After we’d set up, drove to the Information Centre for a browse. It was a very attractive one, nestled in a jungle of greenery, between the highway and the beach. I collected some interesting looking pamphlets. In keeping with the wildlife in the shower, green tree frog illustrations featured prominently.

Nearby was a little jetty and we walked out to the end of that and back. Wandered up and down the line of shops along the highway. I ordered a couple of bread rolls to be kept for us for tomorrow morning. Bought a paper and a small cook book that gave lots of different ways to use mountain bread and pita bread. We found an attractive organic fruit shop, where John bought some bananas. I bought some locally made herb and garlic pasta – some of which was later cooked for tea, and was yummy, with pesto (from a jar).

There were wonderful views from Cardwell, across to Hinchinbrook Island and other little islands dotted about in the sea, and along the coastline itself.

**Looking south along the Hinchinbrook Channel**

It was quite a narrow coastal strip here, with the mountains looming behind the town. The town itself was small and kind of lacked definition. The van parks, and a lot of the shops, seemed rather second rate. It obviously did quite a trade, though, as a break stop for buses, not to mention other travellers passing through.

Hinchinbrook Island, just off Cardwell, is one of the largest island National Parks in Australia. Its core is mountainous, with peaks reaching over 1100 metres above sea level. Given this range of altitude, for an island, it contains a unique number of different ecosystems and environments, and has had National Park status since the 1930’s. It contains the Thorsborne Track, a rugged walking trail between the northern and southern ends of the Island, that takes at least two days to traverse; and on a small leased area at the northern extremity, a small resort.

Whilst the extended hike along the Island was beyond us, these days, we were booked to take a commercial tour day trip to the Island – the reason why we were in Cardwell.

October 9, 2021
by wendyviney Leave a comment

2009 Travels July 12

SUNDAY 12 JULY TOWNSVILLE

After breakfast, drove to Thuringowa, a newer outer part of town, on the southern fringe. Used the new ring road, which we hadn’t been on before, since its entry was close by the park.

We parked near the Arts Centre at Riverway, a big park area, fronting the Ross River. Walked a big circuit, along the river side, crossing the Ross River on a footbridge, then back along the other side and on a footpath that went under the bypass road bridge. It was a most enjoyable walk: 3.7kms, according to the signs.

**Riverway walk circuit (from brochure)**

There was a series of such circuits, along the Ross River, towards the city centre. Townsville had certainly put a lot of money and effort into creating their outdoor recreational areas. There was a large area of “lagoons” – swimming pools – by the Arts Centre. The footpaths were excellent. We also passed a first class sport set-up, for AFL football and cricket. There was some apartment style housing at Riverway, and some very stylish housing that we walked past on the other side of the river.

The walk took us past Black Weir, one of a series that dated from when the Ross River was the city’s water supply. Now it is more renown as the name of a virus – Ross River Fever – mosquito borne and now quite widespread in Australia.

There were surprisingly few people using the area. Maybe they were all at the car races?

This was one occasion when I missed having our mountain bikes with us, as we did in the early years of our travels. Cycling these river side paths would have been very enjoyable.

Called in at the nearby Willows shopping complex for some supplies, then went back to the van.

John watched the car races, then the football. I chose to stay inside because of the horrible men in the cabin behind us. The drinking had started before 8 am again, today, so he and his friends were well obnoxious by the afternoon, yet again.

I thought I knew why our otherwise pleasant site had been the last one allocated over the weekend period, by park management!

Tea was steak, mushrooms, potatoes in foil, and green beans.

October 8, 2021
by wendyviney 2 Comments

2009 Travels July 11

SATURDAY 11 JULY TOWNSVILLE

Before breakfast, we walked to the little local shopping complex. It was quite a do-able walk, maybe a km? There was a footpath for only part of the way, so some of it was a bit scrambly, including clambering down and up the sides of a little gutter-like creek. Perhaps when all the local road works for the construction of a fly-over/intersection, outside the park, were finished, there might be a full footpath put in.

We walked past a guy with a utility, blatantly stealing some of the orange plastic mesh stuff, from around the works.

Bought papers, a new Sudoku book, some groceries and meat.

Through the rest of the day, John watched football and the V8 Supercars, racing here, on TV. I read the papers, had a session on the computer, made a Thai style chicken salad for tea.

**Behind our site – the cabin where unpleasant occupant resided**

There had been a man occupying the cabin behind our van, on what appeared to be a longer term arrangement. Today, he commenced drinking alcohol before I’d had breakfast, continued to drink steadily throughout the day, and was joined by friends. They were loudly into obscene jokes, comments and abysmal language. The worst type of yobbos.

It was unpleasant to sit outside the van because they were so loud and intrusive. I thought about complaining to management, but worried about possible retribution, so didn’t. I just hoped that, come the morning, they would feel like death, and that karma would catch up with them at a later date, in a really painful way.

They kept up the carousing and noise well into the night.

October 7, 2021
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2009 Travels July 10

FRIDAY 10 JULY TOWNSVILLE

John went for a walk around the camp ground, before his breakfast. I did not. I had a sore foot, and had to bowl later.

We drove into town, to The Lakes area, to Toyworld, to hunt for a Thomas the Tank Engine toy for grandson, as an extra reward for him tackling the Read-a-thon. I knew he wanted Bertie the Bus, or Bill and Ben engines, but John found a train washing station, on special – half price. After a quick phone consult with daughter, we got that. The register put it through at full price, which we didn’t notice until the credit docket had been processed. It then seemed easier just to get a second one to put aside for one of the other grandsons, for Xmas, rather than go through the hassle of reversing the credit card charge. Apparently the washing stations had been on special until last Sunday – but no one had taken down the sign. Lucky us.

Went to bowls at the Jubilee Club, in the afternoon. We played adequately and the afternoon was pleasant.

We were told that this was very mild for a Townsville winter – it should be hotter!

Barra and fries for tea.

October 6, 2021
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2009 Travels July 9

THURSDAY 9 JULY TOWNSVILLE

Late last night, I thought I’d smelled rain in the air, but we hadn’t had any. Found out this morning that it had rained at nearby Toomulla Beach.

I walked some circuits of the Park before John got up, then he went walking whilst I got the breakfast ready.

The fridge was fine: freezer stuff was frozen, fridge stuff wasn’t. There had not seemed to be any excessive running throughout the night. From memory, this was the second new thermostat the fridge had needed, in something like a cumulative total of eight years of running, since we bought it in 1991, and some of that in excessively hot conditions. It was regassed in 2007. We certainly couldn’t complain about it!

An outing was needed – my turn to choose, since John had bowls a couple of days ago.

We went to Reef HQ, an aquarium type of display. It cost us $18.95 each for entry, after concession. It was worth the money – with bells on!

The main exhibit showed different faces of a live coral reef, from the quiet inner face, to the side that faces the waves, and all in between these extremes. Sophisticated technology simulated wave and tide actions, so there was constant movement all round the reef. Viewers walked around the central reef exhibit, which contained the world’s largest exhibited (captive?) living coral reef, with over a hundred different species of coral growing on it, and over a hundred species of fish swimming around it, just doing their thing. As well, it contained critters like starfish and sea urchins.

A different display held sharks, sawfish, turtles and moray eels.

It was engrossing to watch what happened on any particular piece of reef, as the water moved about. The antics of the fish were captivating. It was a wonderful way to “see” the Great Barrier Reef, without going diving. In fact, one probably got a better picture of it this way – unless you were really hooked on being wet and having to watch out for anything that might view you as lunch.

We spent over three hours there – much of it just sitting watching the action.

I bought some postcards of the place, and a pale blue polo shirt with the Reef HQ logo, that was marked down to $20.

It was a place I’d quite happily go back to another time, and spend another long session there.

There were some NAIDOC Week events happening in the same building complex. We looked at a display of aboriginal art. (NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. It has become an annual celebration of culture and remembrance of past struggles).

We’d parked Truck part-way along the Strand, so got some exercise walking between there to Reef HQ.

Stopped to watch kids having fun in the water playground area. It was still school holidays somewhere, it seemed.

Drove to the Fishermen’s Co-op, over on the South Side. We had to take a really round about route, due to street closures for the V8 Supercars Race, on at the weekend. Some of the roads we would usually take to the South Side would be part of the race track. It was a real hive of activity, with stands being erected, barriers altering routeways, all sorts of vehicles being moved into place for official and catering purposes.

I bought barra for two feeds, plus extra to add to what I already had for this week, and two kgs of prawns. It only occurred to me afterwards that there was a bit of a disconnect between spending ages admiring the live sea creatures, then going to buy some to eat….

Stopped at the Woolworths in the little shopping complex near the caravan park, for a couple of things. It was a rather poorly stocked supermarket. I decided it was here more to preserve the site and business for when Townsville expanded more out this way, rather than to really cater for the current passing traffic.

Back at the van, spent two hours peeling the prawns for freezing. The tool that John bought at Halifax did not help much, after all. In theory, it sliced the shell open down the back, for easy peeling and removed the poo tube. In practice, it was easier to do it the old way.

I made some extra salads for tea, to add to the leftovers from last night.

This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Category Archives: 2009 Travels