The weather was very kind to us during our stay. We averaged about 27 degrees C every day and
didn’t have any rain the whole time.
This was perfect from our perspective but not too sure about the farmers
or for water storage. We had time to
explore and in addition to walking Jessie most days we went out for some
time. We soon learnt our way around the
city and our favourite places.
While the boys were with us we had visited Riverway Lagoon
which is a complex of swimming pools on the banks of the Ross River adjacent to
the Art Gallery and theatre complex. There
were a number of walks along the river and we enjoyed these. One of the lovely warm days we took a picnic
lunch and visited Palmetum which is a 17 hectare botanic garden displaying one
of the largest and most diverse public collections of palms in the world.
The Ross River borders the gardens and we enjoyed our lunch
in one of the picnic areas. There is
also a café with visitors’ facilities.
Soon after we arrived we were surprised to see a kangaroo in one of the
areas and thought initially that there must be some roaming within the park,
but as we didn’t see any more perhaps it was wild and disorientated.
The noise of the bats in one area attracted me but we didn't
hang around that area for long – there were hundreds of them and with the
likelihood of showers of droppings it was time to move on.
Another day we decided it was time that Jessie had a decent
run on the beach so she came along for the ride. We went to Saunders Beach which is north of
the city and again took a picnic. There
is a large free camping area at Saunders Beach and it was certainly popular
with at least twenty caravans and campers set up and it was only early
afternoon. The tide was out so we were
able to wander quite a long way along the beach and Jessie enjoyed being out
and about although we kept her on a long lead as we were uncertain of her
reaction if she had met other walkers or dogs.
From the beach we could see Magnetic Island across the bay.
Flinders Street is the main shopping street in Townsville
and on a Sunday there is a market. There
were the normal number of stalls selling a variety of home crafts, fruit and
vegetables and even massages. The local military
vehicle club had a number of vehicles out on display which was much for
interesting for Peter than any of the stalls!
From here we went down to The Strand which is the Townsville
Esplanade. This is a beach front promenade
with palm trees, bike and walkway paths, patrolled swimming beaches, picnic
spots, pier, a water park and pool areas, playgrounds and of course restaurants
and cafes. We decided that lunch at The
Strand each Sunday was in our plans and we enjoyed visiting a number of the café
and restaurants making sure never to visit the same one twice. Swimming in the beach in the winter months if
quite popular as over the summer months there are stingers in the water and
swimming is not recommended. However
they do have two beach areas with stinger resistant enclosures in place from
November to May.
The rock pool is a large artificial swimming pool filled
with sea water (there is a stinger net placed in the water from November to May
to make this a safe place to swim all year round). Behind the rock pool is Kissing Point which
was a bunker during World War II. It was
originally build as a fort in the late 1800’s as a defence against the
Russians. This area is currently closed
off to the public for redevelopment.
The Formula One racing was on while we were in Townsville so
there were quite a few events held around car racing. Peter didn’t want to go to the actual race
days but he did enjoy looking at some of the cars on display down at The
Strand.
Another day we took ourselves off to the Townsville
Show. We did expect it to be bigger than
what it was with more exhibitions but obviously we expected too much. We watched the wood chopping for a while, and
I looked at the flower and baking competitions and also the textiles but these
didn’t hold any interest for Peter which is not surprising. Of much more interest to him was the big foot
vehicles on display. Of course there
were the usual side shows and rides and the ever popular show bags.
Another day around lunch time we decided to pay a visit to
the Townsville Jupiters Casino to just have a look and perhaps enjoy
lunch. The hotel is close to The Strand
and overlooks Breakwater Marina. After a
short walk around we soon lost interest and didn’t even bother to stay for
lunch.
year we had taken the boat
to Magnetic Island and enjoyed catching up with our nephew, Jordan, who was staying
on a yacht moored there before sailing back to Melbourne. We decided you couldn’t come to Townsville
without paying a visit to Magnetic Island which is just eight kilometres off
the Townsville coast and can be seen from the city. The island is just 52 kms square and is
mainly a mountainous national park and bird sanctuary. There are around 2000 people living
permanently on the island but mainly around the shoreline. It is a popular holiday spot and there are
lots of private home rentals and a few hotels.
A local bus services meets the
ferries on arrival and there is a bus route from Picnic Bay to Horseshoe Bay on
the opposite coast. It is not possible
to drive around the island. We took the
bus to Horseshoe Bay where we spent time walking the beach, having a swim and
lunching in one of the café before heading back to catch the ferry back to
Townsville. It was school holidays so
there were lots of people about including lots of backpackers. It is a great place to visit and we are sure
to go to Magnetic Island again.The Ross River Dam is the water supply for the Townsville area. We were amazed at how much water is used irrigating lawns in the area. The house we stayed in had a number of pop up outlets that sprayed a large quantity of water on to the gardens every night. No wonder the lawns and the tropical gardens were so healthy. When we were out walking the dog we had to watch out for the water spraying as there were no foot paths and we had to walk either on the grass verge or along the side of the road. No water restrictions obviously in Townsville in winter. We had initially visited the Ross River Dam when there was a motor home rally on and they had an open day. There were over 300 motorhomes of various types staying and we visited on the open to the public day. There was a small public display of some new motorhomes with price tags of around $150 - $200,000 – dreams for most people. In addition there were the normal market type stalls and various camping supplies etc. We did meet one couple who turned out to be visiting Australia for the winter months from New Zealand and their home was about ten kilometres from our house in New Zealand. They were heading to Cape York and then across towards the Northern Territory with their small slide on camper. The variety of motor homes was amazing and we enjoyed our visit.
On our next visit to Ross River Dam there were still a few
motorhomes and campers parked up. We
were keen to see more of the dam but this proved quite difficult. There is a viewing platform but we saw it
from a distance. Instead we went further
down the Ross River to one of the recreational areas established and after a
picnic lunch and as we are trying to increase our daily exercise we took a long
walk along the walkway. We could have
kept going for kilometres but I am always mindful that we have to walk back to
the car! The bark on the trees still
amazes me after living in Australia for so long now – it seems to just fall off
the trees and underneath there is this very smooth tree trunk. It is just beautiful.
One of the last beach areas we visited was Bushland Beach
which is part of the northern beaches area of Townsville. It is now one of the fasted growing suburbs
of Townsville and there are extensive new housing areas. There is a very nice recreational area along
the waterfront and on the day we visited there were many families enjoying the
warm conditions. We didn’t take Jessie
with us (we had cleaned the car and weren’t too keen on a lot of Jessie’s hair
in it again) but instead we walked the beach.
It was low tide and the water was well out but walking wasn’t too
pleasant as the sand was soft and quite muddy.
We saw one casualty of the conditions – a tractor sunk deep in the
mud. There is an open air café on the
beach front with lots of tables and chairs set out as they were preparing for
live music at dinner.
Surprisingly the five weeks we had in Townsville went very
quickly and we were quite sad to be packing up ready to head south – we certainly
weren’t really to leave the warm weather behind us. However, with house sitting there is a date
to commence and a date to finish and the family we were sitting for were due
home from their holiday in the USA. So
on Thursday, 11 July we re-packed the car, did the final clean of the house and
garden, said good bye to Jessie and commenced our journey south. We would be more than happy to stay in
Townsville again another time. It is a
great city of some 196,000 (2011) people, is adjacent to the central section of
the Great Barrier Reef, and is considered the unofficial capital of North
Queensland. The winter months are mostly
fine weather (we had no rain during our stay).
December is the warmest month (average 31.4 deg C) with July the coolest
(when we visited) at 25 deg C. We
visited during the dry season – the wet season is from November to April and
they do have tropical cyclones. We haven’t
visited Townsville or Far North Queensland during the summer / wet season but
we can certainly recommend it in the winter!
No comments:
Post a Comment