We arrived at Townsville at 2.25pm on Monday 8th March 2010 (not sure where time is going at the moment as seems to be flying!), the town itself is usually just the gateway to Magentic Island by 30 minute ferry but due to tight budget constraints we bucked the trend and decided to stay in Townsville itself for a couple of days to break up the journey and chill out! Jimmy picked a really good hostel here more like a B+B guest house run by a more mature lady called Fran! We booked a three bedroom dorm and ended up with our own apartment practically! Own fully equipped kitchen, toilet, shower room and bedroom! The place even had free laundry so we took full advantage!

Townsville is the 2nd biggest town in Queensland after Brisbane with a population similar to York and we thought it was a really nice town although the main area is currently being regenerated there wasn't much in terms of shops etc, the town had a lovely beach front 2.2km area called the Strand that runs along the beach with cafes/exercise areas and stinger net and swimming areas. The main swimming area is at the end of the Strand and is known as the Rock Pool, so we precariously went in for a dip as there are still signs up saying there is a risk of jelly fish getting through the nets apparantly!!! We later found out after sharply exiting the pool that a small saltie had been found in the Rock Pool a few days earlier!!

Highlight of our stay here was the evening walk up Castle Hill to the look out point (very steep and quite a work out in the heat!) to watch the sunset and to see amazing views of the town from above. My other personal highlight from here was the Australian Ice Creamery where with one cone you can get 1 1/2 scoops so can try two flavours!! Me and Jimmy weirdly both went for the same ones and had a scopp of Jaffa (choc orange) and vanilla with M and M's - Yummy! Overall a nice town for a few days just chilling out with a tiny bit of history and culture too! (Forgot to mention we did also visit the Cultural Centre in the town so check us out!!!) Next stop Cairns and our last Greyhound bus!