Today my brother & his wife took it upon themselves to show me something of Townsville which, perhaps they suspected, I had not previously appreciated - and they were right! With a population exceeding 200,000 it is a fast-growing but mature city with a relaxed life style brought about no doubt by the great weather. We viewed it from above, sampled the food, drank it's coffee & mingled along the Strand. Somewhere during this I decided I liked the place...

Wet packup but had no choice. Visited Wallaman Falls as planned. The access road had lots of repairs & warnings following recent storm damage (maybe even previous night). Still raining when I arrived at Lookout - could hear the Falls but not see them! The entire valley was enveloped in fog. Had a quick look where the Falls purportedly were & left the area. Arrived at Townsvile at 1.30pm looking for somewhere to erect a very wet tent. Booked in for 2 ni...

Had to go out in the wind & rain to attach extra ropes! Throughout the day the rain set in so I decided to wait it out & stay an extra night. Lucinda doesn't have a lot going for it other than fishing & a very long jetty used to load sugar! However the CP is great, the owners are helpful & they have free WIFI! Highlight was the 5.76km jetty requiring 22 mins for a sugar grain to go from end to end!

The free camp last night was a bad mistake. Camping next to a straight section of a major thru highway makes no sense at all. And it was simply impossible to sleep. Every 15 secs a roar building to a crescendo put paid to that! While packing up the big zipper on the camper cover decided to not engage so had to fashion a couple of straps to hold the cover down. Using the smartphone I located a canvas/tent business in Mareeba and got directions to the place. By 9....

Was up & on the track early. Had about 40km to Cape Trib. Crossed the Donovan Range in mostly LL but without any stress. Cape Trib is not recognizable from 15 years ago & not all change is good. I imagine the Greenies who fought against the Bloomfield Track are still tearing their hair out! Checked out the beaches - Cape Trib, Myall, Thornton & Cow. At Cow Beach I set my table & chair on the sand & shelled & ate half a kilo of prawns to...