CAIRNS 12-14th June

Saturday Cairns

Cairns 12^th June

Drove into downtown Cairns and walked along the esplanade and checked out the night markets. Having so many places to chose to eat we finally settled on the Pizza place.

After a supreme pizza which we down  washed with a glass

of  red we walked down towards the marina.

 I had been looking forward on one of our days here on having a swim at the Esplanade Lagoon but once again it appears as though I will miss out, as I did in Townsville. Wire fences and blue tarps enclosed the whole area as they appeared to be renovating the pool. It didn’t look as though it would be finished any time soon.

Sunday we drove up to Copperlode Dam a drive of 15kms away. We walked to the spillway and to the viewing platforms for some fantastic views .

Friday 11th June

We pulled out of the Caravan Park at 8.30 with Tom Tom set for Cairns about 5 hours away with some stops, that should get us there at about 2 pm.
Stopping at Cardwell for our morning coffee we could see Hinchinbrook Island National Park just across the water. Maybe on our way back down again we might stop off here and explore it all a bit more.

One of the numerous cane fields we passed  on our drive  north, along with the banana plantations that started around Innisfail

There is so much to see and do you could spend years travelling around Australia and still not see it all.
With a slightly overcast sky,  a nice 23 deg and a just a few rain drops it made it quite pleasant to drive.
We drove on up the Bruce Highway through Tully and on to Innisfail and then into Cairns at about 2.30pm.
We chose our camp site and set up for a stay of probably a couple of weeks.

Townsville 10th June

Townsville

We decided to stay another day so we could walk along 
The Strand and have a swim in the Rock Pool which we saw the other day.

Despite the helicopters and the trains we had a good nights sleep and awoke
 to another beautiful day with a temp forecast of 27 deg.
As we drove into the car park by the pool to my dismay
 I could see that it was empty.
 Of all things we had chosen the one day that they were doing the pool maintenance.(We have since found out that it's closed every Thursday for cleaning). What a disappointment. However as we had our lunch and bathers we walked along The Strand and went on down to the patrolled part of the beach and set our selves up under the shade of a palm tree. How could we complain about that! Lunch, a swim and reading our books kept us busy for a couple of hours until we felt we needed some more exercise. Walking down the Strand which goes along the beach front into the city we were impressed with the way the local council had made it so appealing. Great activities for the kids with climbing ropes, water play areas,swimming pools and at least three ice outlets one of which we couldn't resist.

Picking up a few grocery items on our way back to the car we continued our walk along The Strand enjoying the views and the exercise.
Tonight we'll start to pack up a few things ready for our departure tomorrow morning for Cairns

Magnetic Island Queensland

27 deg forecasted with clear blue skies.

So what could be better than taking the ferry out to Magnetic Island, 8 kms off the coast and only 20 minutes away by the ferry cat.

On arrival we caught the local bus and purchased an all day ticket which allowed us to hop on and off as often as we wanted. So to start with we headed off to Horseshoe Bay.

We walked up and down the length of the beach with the warm water just lapping our bare feet in the clean soft sand.

Horseshoe Bay

Here we had our lunch overlooking the bay.

We hopped back on the bus and continued on to Picnic Bay walking out on the original pier and where the boats use to come into from the mainland before the main ferry terminal was built .

Needless to say we had a great day and by the time we arrived back at the mainland and driven back to our little home we were quite exhausted.  If you have the chance make sure you visit this majestic island. The activities that you can do here is almost endless with bush walking, scuba diving, cycling, fishing , sailing, it goes on and on, no wonder it's such a popular holiday destination for Australian families and of course the back packers.

Townsville Tuesday 8th June

We drove into Townsville to do some of the various Heritage Trails that have been set up around the city.

Parking along the Strand we walked down to the Flinders Mall area and was confronted with the whole place being ripped up. It was very hard to appreciate the city buildings as they were mostly obscured by safety fences and hoardings. They are in the process of removing the mall and putting back the two way road (for slow moving traffic) to try and bring back some life into the area with the wide pavements and street landscaping.
On the other Heritage Trails we did see some great Art Deco and Heritage buildings which have been well preserved and put to good use.

We walked over to the Marina and checked out the Museum of Tropical Queensland however having been into it last year we instead decided to drive the length of the Strand to Kissing Point.

 Great beaches along the way and with the enclosed swimming area at the end of the Strand there were plenty of places to swim and relax by the water.
To finish off our days activities we headed for Castle Hill.

Castle Hill is a pink granite monolith standing in the heart of the north Queensland city of Townsville. It rises to a height of some 286 metres above sea level and dominates the city skyline.


We drove up to the top and then walked out to a few of the viewing platforms which provided us with some of the greatest views of the city and surrounding areas.

This climb to the top and back is one of Townsville greatest recreational activities. Hordes of people were either running or walking to the top and back down again. The idea appealed to me but I couldn't get Beatrice interested, anyhow it was getting late and we didn't have our running gear with us.(Also it was time for our evening drinks etc back home)
  With that we decided to call it a day and slowly made our way back down the narrow twisting road ensuring that we kept well clear of the runners and walkers on the sides of the road.

Monday Leaving Blacks Beach for Townsville.

Having been up early we were able to pull out of Blacks Beach at 8.15am. It was another beautiful day with a clear blue sky.

Having driven this road last year we were interested to see what or if there had been any changes made along the way. We found the Bruce Highway was still the same with no major upgrades and most of it still being just two way traffic with very few over taking lanes.
From the Mackay region it was mostly cane fields and with the cutting season just about starting from now until November there were warning signs about giving way to the cane trains that cross the road. With the only indication being lights and bells you had to keep aware of what was happening.

We stopped off for our coffee outside the information centre and the Big Mango on the outskirts of Bowen.
Stopping off for lunch after another couple of hours we continued on to Townsville having checked out somewhere to stay and phoning ahead to confirm that they had a space for us for a few days.
By the time we had set up we felt quite exhausted so before dinner we walked around the caravan park to get our bearings and then read our books and planned what we would do for the next few days.
However we found that our quiet evening was not to be as the caravan park was situated right by the                                            
                                                       RAAF BASE TOWNSVILLE

 RAAF Base and it appeared that they were having night flying practice and those big Black Hawk helicopters make an awful lot of noise especially when they criss cross the night sky right over your head. I 'm pleased to say however that it did all finish just after 10pm so they did have some consideration for the townsfolk. Thankfully the commercial airport flights came in over the sea so they didn't trouble us. We did though have the railway line within earshot and with the train horns and whistles it all added to the noise of the place.

Mackay Saturday-Sunday

Saturday
Birthday Girl Beatrice opened up her cards and her beautiful island bracelet from me.

It was once again a beautiful day so we drove into town to do the Heritage Walk.A listing of 22 Art Deco and historic building around the streets of Mackay.The Walk took a couple of hours under a clear blue sky and around 25 deg. Very pleasant


Sugar was the dominant industry in Mackay in its earlier days, however more recently the hinterland coal mining developments and the tourism have been added to drive the success of this region.
Had Beatrice's Birthday dinner

at the Eimeo Pacific Hotel overlooking the ocean.

Sunday- Walked the beach, visited the orchid pavilion and read our books.