Day 68 - Townsville, Australia
Now relax.................
Well it was a treat to not have to wake up in a rush to go somewhere this morning. Taking it nice and slowly we started out walking into town about nine thirty and have to say we were pleasantly surprised.
The beach is right opposite our campsite and the picture you see on the left is taken on it. Honestly at the Rowes Bay end of the town if you cut the houses out of your line of vision you could be in the Bahamas.
The beach has a promenade (The Strand) which runs the whole length of the town so we stuck to that and followed the coast.
First stop was kissing point a headland at the end of Rowes Bay then onto the Rock Pool which is a manmade
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Trevor & Jonathan’s World Trip 2010
pool that has been constructed to look like the sea. The thing is that you can’t swim in the sea here as they have box jelly fish and if one of them stings you, well you’ll know about it! They do have netted areas where all the jellyfish have been taken out but it seems such a shame to have such a beautiful shoreline that effectively is useless.
Walking into town we passed the ice cream parlour that Joe (Jonathan’s nephew) had told us about and we both felt that we were definitely following in his footsteps here!
We headed for a cafe on the main street and ordered coffee and breakfast, Trevor had a dream last night about waking up and having Eggs Benedict overlooking the sea so we had to do it. Unfortunately this did not pan out as after an hour and a half waiting with no food in sight we left, and least we got the coffee’s free!
We headed up to the marina and Trevor was drooling over the boats and the marina housing, it did put Brighton marina to shame but then I don’t think that the palm trees would survive the british weather.
Walking up into the main CBD (central business district - shopping area to you and me) we were met with work in progress!
Townsville town centre is going through a major redevelopment and the CBD looked virtually closed down, all the shops shut by 1pm on a Saturday!!!!
We headed to a local bar for refreshment and had a couple of cold beers and a steak sandwich before hitting the pavements once more. Back into the town we went to the supermarket for a few essentials, stopped off at the Ice Cream parlour that Joe had told us to visit and it was back to the van.
Today had all been about relaxing again and reminding ourselves that this was about seeing the different towns along Australia’s god coast. Townsville is certainly not outstanding and there are no special sights to take in or significant historical facts to learn but it does have something.
It delivers people watching in spades and the cappuccino bars that line the streets give you a place to perch and watch the world go by. Rowes Bay is quite beautiful and in places looks like the Bahamas.
Revived and refreshed we headed out on the bikes and cycled around the crescent of Rowes Bay and watch the sun go down.
Townsville had been everything that we needed it to be, a great chilled out non hassled relaxing town that just lets you get on with what you are doing. The views across the bay are worth the trip alone.