Sparkling city!
Trip Start
Jan 08, 2011
1
200
261
Trip End
Dec 20, 2011
Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Day 14 Australia road trip
Kilometres travelled ; 160
Townsville on the map seems a pretty big city, but up close it really is not, we parked up and went for a walk down the promenade,[ boardwalk as they like to call it] it is beautiful, it is definitely the cleanest place we have ever been to and it puts Singapores claims of being the cleanest to shame, this place is sparkling!
They had various weird exercise signs and equipment to do along the parade but we gave it a miss as even though it was only 9 in the morning walking in the heat was enough not a chance we would be running in it.
We did wonder if anybody lived here it was so quiet, we saw about 30 people.
There was a lagoon at the end, it looked lovely from a distance but up close looked a little brown so gave that one a miss, the sea was perfect, calm, blue and sand was white but as all the signs tell you it is stinger season so not a chance we would be going in there!
We drove from Townsville to blue water rest stop had all the amenities be it a cold shower but we have come quite accustomed to them now.
After a while we decided it was far to hot to sit in a field with bush all around and no breeze, headed towards the beach area if tookalea, found a nice parking area and went to the beach, it was dead not another person in sight, the beach had huge sand banks and a small river mouth, from where we had sat the sand bank looked like the deserted island out of pirate of the caribbean, walked over to the sand banks with just our feet in the water, the sand bank had perfect soft white clean sand, PARADISE minus the stingers and crocs!
Took loads of photos, and walked back, went back to the rest area got the last shady spot, cooked some din dins, walked around the park and field, the vampires decided to pay a visit so thought it would be a good idea to go for a walk, worked well for Phil not a bite on him I got a few so still better than being a sitting meal! The moon was full and really low which was pretty cool looked as though we could touch it!
The rest area seemed pretty popular with budget travellers and a few fruit loops that live in make shift campervans and go up to trees talking and touching them... a little strange!
Also, we were sat in the van minding our own, and we just here this noise, a proper loud, dull thud and echo, after a while,curious, had to have a look, and not sure if we can relate just how strange this was, but saw some guy, 4x4 parked up, weird roof tent on it, he's up a pair of steps, next to a tree, and from our distance, just looked like he was knocking seven bells out if the tree with a club hammer?? What??? Get back to whatever we were doing, next thing , you can hear a mains electric drill going off - gotta have a look now, this guy is drilling and hitting the tree?? both of us a little confused by what he was doing thinking he was trying to fix his car roof tent contraption or something to it, he was in fact putting a bird box on the tree still a little strange thing to do no? Turn up at a rest stop just before dark, get your tool kit out and fix up a bird box? Ok mate, you just stay over there a bit yeah?? strange, and surprised no one stopped him or said something really!!!
