Day 34 to 37. July 23 to 26 2022. Townsville. Just in time.

Townsville is a cracker of a town. Neither of us have been here before, but from the time youfirst see the imposing granite monolith that hangs over the town, you are intrigued. Within minutes of unhooking the van, we are walking along the coast, through a great war memorial track, and then onto the Strand. With a great view of Magnetic Island to boot, what a great place.

On the Sunday, we go to the market in the centre of town. This is a great way to bring people in – and they even had two record stalls to dig through! Such contrast to Mackay where everyone was dragged into the big non-descript shopping mall. A drive to Castle Hill lookout provides an amazing vista of the surrounds of Townsville, and you discover it is a pretty big small town. The lookout is breath taking, and so is the walk up. I could tell because people were quite tired when they got to our car park.

For complete randomness, we also got our 4th booster shot. Driving past a big orange building with CoVid written over I, we decide to turn back to check it out. It looked closed, and there were very few cars out the front. I go to the door to see opening hours, but could not see them. Trying the front door, they open and let me in. It was a large deserted room. With trepidation I step forward and walk the direction a sign points to vaccinations. The doors close behind me, but I go on. Rounding the corner, the room is a large exhibition centre. In front of me are two lanes marked out, Appointments and Walk Ups. Both are empty. Still not sure if I was allowed to be there, I can see on the other side of the hall, two masked attendants behind a desk, beckoning me to come over. I make my way through the maze to get to the front of the line. Linda follows, wondering if I had gotten lost in the building. 15 minutes later we leave, happy to have our fourth shot. Apparently it was a quiet day. Covid isn’t in front of mind in Townsville, but it is more so in some of the country towns. Bowen apparently had an outbreak at one of the parks, so this seems to be a wise thing to knock off the to do list, with thanks to Queensland Health.

Monday, we hit Magnetic Island. A beautiful 20 minute ferry ride and we are driving on the island by 8:30. We have hired a topless (the car, not the people) Jeep. Suns out, we’re out, its all good. A gentle drive to a couple of the bays, some walking and lunching on the beach, and then onto the Forts walk. I had no idea on how involved in the second world war Australia was on its own soil, and this trek to the top of Magnetic Island was amazing. They had discretely installed two gun turrets into the Granite at the top of the hill. It was a challenging trail that we struggled through, but much easier than it would have been 5 weeks ago when we started. The Blue Mountains were tough in parts, and this was probably 4x that, and we handled it pretty well. The pay off was magnificent views, some education, 2 Rock Wallabies, 2 Koala’s and a surprise Echidna. It was a really good, long walk and my watch told me that I beat my best flights climbed record.

To finish off, we decide to try our first dip into the ocean by Picnic Bay. By the time we are there, the wind had picked up and we settled for an ice cream instead. While contemplating the world while looking back onto the sea, we are treated to our first live whale display. A pod playing off the coast doing their acrobatic show with backflips and flipper slaps. We even got a sneak peek of them on the ferry on the way back – a treat as they aren’t due into the waters for another few weeks. ‘Twas the best of times.

Tuesday we have a planning day as we leave the coast the next day. As we head inland, we expect that there will be less accessibility to reasonably priced fresh food, and need to stock up on all the essentials. Late afternoon we take a final walk down The Strand and check out the “Siren of the Sea”, a sculpture that changes colour according to water temperatures. As we start heading back to the car, the realisation dawns on me that with our food store now bought and the van’s fridge full, that there is little space for cooling a can of diet coke or even a beer. With Linda frustrated and telling me that this has not been a secret now for a number of months, we do some quick research, a quick call to one of Queenslands most popular electronic stores in Jaycar (seriously, they are everywhere) and I purchase a 12v fridge that fits a couple of diet coke cans, and 10 beers. All that, with 15 minutes before the shops closed. No worries.