After our inland tour, we returned to Townsville to get a couple of things done to the car. While staying there previously, we had met a lovely Irish couple called Lorcan and Aoifa (pr. Eefa). Lorcan is a mechanic and looked Ramsey over for us and identified problems with the anti-roll bars (no, I don't know really what they are, but they stop the car toppling over apparently). Ramsey also needed a service. Lorcan had found a job with a local company called Kow...

This is what I'd been waiting for since buying our four-wheel drive Pajero some 6 weeks ago - a journey along a 245km stretch of dirt road from Hughenden to a small road house at The Lynd junction, stopping off at Porcupine Gorge National Park along the way. It's by no means a challenge to seasoned four-wheel drivers, but this was special because it was our first time. The drive started along the Kennedy Development Road which was fine. Some sections had a spla...

Fancying a break from Townsville, we headed inland towards the former gold rush town of Charters Towers.On the way we took a diversion to Ravenswood, also an ex gold town, but much smaller and now largely abandoned. However, a lot of the buildings have been restored which makes it worth a look.We debated staying overnight and spending the evening in one of the two traditional outback hotels, but decided to move on. The camp site would have been a fair walk back...

When tourists and travellers plan a trip north along the coast of Queensland, relatively few seem to bother with Townsville. After Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays, the priority for most people is to get to Cairns as soon as possible; if they visit Townsville then it is just for an overnight halt or to hop over to nearby Magnetic Island for the day. When we looked at the map, we were in the majority camp. Our only aim was to break up the journey and to recharg...

We decided to go on a day trip to Magnetic Island which is just off the Queensland coast near Townsville. It gets its name from Captain Cook who named it Magnetical when his sailing instruments went hay-wire whilst passing by the island.It hadn't really been on our list of things to do in Australia, but an island that boasts 320 days of sunshine, nice beaches, and has a few walks certainly sounded our kind of place.Although the catamaran journey was only 30 minu...