We left Mission Beach for Townsville about 9am. Had a massive day of driving ahead..well Carol did! Before we left there was the exchange of anniversary cards and the presents we were not getting each other!
During the drive along coast it was very evident to see the damage the cyclone (Yasi) caused Queensland when it hit. Roofs were still torn off houses and not replaced, trees which faced the brunt of storm either rooted up or bent drastically. These were trees which were 50-75 metres in height - absolutely astonishing.
We stopped in Tully to visit the (very) touristy giant Wellington boot which stood 7.8 metres high. The 7.8 metres represented the amount of rain which fell in Tully a few tears back. Amazing! We were able to go up inside the Wellington for our touristy pics before getting back on track! The town itself though was a major industrial town, high piping chimneys across the landscape.
Our next stop was the coast town of Cardwell, more specifically on the pier. The pier itself was cut off from mainland but a little walk out and step ladder allowed us to access it. Not sure if this was a result of Yasi either?! The pier had crab fishermen and tourists all engaging in passing conversation.
Got some cool pics before making our way towards our next stop, Ingham.
We filled up on petrol again and loitered around the Mcd's for the free wifi! Backpackers or what!!
Once out of Ingham we were on our way to Townsville, finally a hotel with a proper bed!!
The town itself was way bigger than we expected and we parked up on the strand-the main area for hotels and apartments. We made our way to the info office off Flinders street where we got some on hotels. One, with a casino! The other on the strand..my preference?? You guess!
We rocked up to the casino hotel (Jupiters) in our flower covered van, just our luck, they had just booked their last room. Total bummer! We ended up checking into Aquarius which had unreal ocean views (and of Magnetic Island). After dumping our gear upstairs, we headed across the street for some lunch at a beach side restaurant before making our way to the town rockpool- open to public free of charge at the end of the strand. Paradise! Was cool watching sun disappear below the Kissing point hill. We had well deserved dip (and running bombs!) in pool (which was not at all busy!) before heading back to apartment to get ready to head out to celebrate anno #2. While walking back we seen that tonight was actually debs/graduation night in the hotel we tried to originally book so perhaps blessing in disguise! (probably that old lady again from Millaa Millaa!).
After putting on gladrags and watching home & away, we headed up to Palmers Street for grub, eventually settling for a steakhouse and just got to the kitchen before it closed! Was quite a walk to the street so we worked up big appetite, so that merited some mains, beers and desserts!
Once we were too full to eat anymore we walked along beach front back to apartment stopping off for photo at blood fountain (thank you drunk girl whoever you are). Blood fountain was a normal fountain until earlier that day when a blood donation charity poured red dye into fountain to raise awareness and importance of blood donation. Made the main news here and everything!
Got into bed around midnight with ideas to head to airlie beach tomorrow...we'll see...