2500 km's from Darwin to Townsville in 5 days....madness! We were very excited to finally hit the East Coast and so happy to be back in civilisation after 2 months of patchy and sometimes non-existent mobile and Internet cover. I'm usually not that dependent on my mobile, but when you have a car which is prone to misbehaving and you are in the middle of nowhere in the heat, well it would be more reassuring to have mobile cover. Thankfully the car went well and we are hoping this continues.
Anyway, we have had a look around Townsville and found it to be a great city, spotlessly clean and with beautiful trees and gardens everywhere. The amount of facilities is incredible and I wish I had more time (and $) to have a look at the huge amount of shops. I think I could easily live here, it still has the nice country town feel but by gawd those Queenslanders drive like mad things!
One of our favorite places here is The Strand, which is Townsville's waterfront precinct. It is just a massive park by the beach which stretches for about 2kms. There is a large saltwater pool at the far end, beach volleyball courts, kids playgrounds, a water park, gardens and loads of swanky eateries where all the 'beautiful people' hang out. A very nice place to spend some time on a sunny day, although it was a bit windy when we visited.
We are staying about 60 km's north of Townsville at Rollingstone. The park here was recommended by a few Portlanders and it is really nice, especially the pool which has a cool little waterfall to sit underneath. It is located right on the beach, but unfortunately crocs like the beach here too, so no swimming in the ocean for us! I can't wait until we get further south so we can swim at a croc-free beach.
Tomorrow we are surprising the kids with a trip over to Magnetic Island. Our Internet modem has given up the ghost after only 2 months of use and I refuse to give Telstra more of my money, so hopefully I can keep the blog up to date. If not, I will blog from the Sunshine Coast.
Bye for now :)