Day 1, 2 and 3

Well, I've finally posted about my holidays in detail. Wanted to wait until I could do it all in one hit. I've broken it up mainly in lots of 1 and 2 days, depending on what days had lots of photos.

We arrived in Townsville around 9.30pm on June 19th, and were met at the airport by Chris' sister jen, whom we were staying with. That night was just spent getting settled in. We arrived during a week when the whole east coast was having strangely cold weather. I was assured that the weather was normally much nicer. It was generally not too cold for me, but it was overcast and dreary for the first week.

On our first full day in Townsville we met up with Chris' mum at the local shops, and she came back with us for lunch. We then went round to Chris' friend Ron's place, who had just gone back to Townsville himself after living in L.A for a few months. He had stopped over in Melbourne for a few days on the way to L.A and I had met him then. We went with Ron for a driven tour of the city, and went up to the lookout at Castle Hill, from where you can see the city, bay and islands. Thats Magnetic Island in the first two photos. Where we are staying is about 5 minutes around the other side of Castle Hill. After getting back to Ron's, Chris and I met up with Jen at his old home for dinner with his parents.


This is a shot of 'The Saint' on Castle Hill. He appeared overnight following a local footy game several decades ago and promptly became a local icon. The council had it removed a while back and was met with so much protest that they wound up putting him back up there!

Our second day in Townsville was the coldest on record, at a chilly 14C, which is mild to average for Melbourne in June. As it was also wet, we had an indoors day, only venturing out for lunch and to go to the shops. In the evening we met up with Ron and some of their other friends for a game of pool and a movie (Oceans 13 - not too bad if you can resist the urge to pick it apart).

Our third day was still cool but not too bad, and we went out for lunch with Chris' mum at the new riverside complex. We ate at Cbar, where I had beautiful grilled barramundi. The staff there were very attentive and we had coffee and cake after lunch then went for a walk around the grounds and down by the river, before going to Chris' parents place to play cards with his mum for a while before we had to meet Jen. That night we dropped Jen off in the city, went out for dinner and then to the casino.

My overall impression of Townsville is that it is a beautiful city, one which i would very much like to visit again when the weather is doing what its supposed to. I found the little things interesting, such as trees and birds that we don't get down south. There were lots of falcons and sea eagles for example, and green tree frogs just hanging out on window sills.

Day 4 and 5 - Paluma and fishing

On Saturday June 23rd Jen, Chris and I headed to Paluma, the rainforest in the clouds. En route we stopped off for morning tea at Chris' uncles place, where I met a bunch of lovely people I had no hope of remembering the names of.

An hour or so later we were back on the road, driving past sugar cane fields and pineapples towards mountains fast disappearing into cloud. The drive up the mountain itself started much like any other small windy road through the bush, but the scenery soon changed to dense rainforest. The cloud trailing through the forest made for interesting atmospheric effects. At certain points one could easily imagine the headless horseman riding out of the mist, sweeping past the vines which dangled from branches arching over the road.

We drove all the way to the huge man made reservoir on top of the mountain, where we got out to stretch our legs. Again the mist made interesting effects. The water appeared white, and we could feel and see tiny water droplets which were so fine that they did not cause any ripples in the lake. On the drive back we stopped in the village for something to eat before returning home.

Later that night we were all relaxing at Jens, and after she went to bed Chris and I decided we felt like doing something, so we ended up going for a late night stroll along The Strand, Townsville's main beach. We ended up walking a fair distance, and stopped for a coffee before returning. It was a beautiful walk, and a lovely mild night for it. Afterwards we went to the casino for a little while before calling it quits for the night.

The next day Chris and I met up with Jen for lunch along the strand before heading off to go fishing with Ron and his dad, Ron snr. We went out on one of the creeks in their new boat and found a spot where the fish were biting constantly. This was my first fishing trip. I caught a few little guys that had to be thrown back. Chris was the only one who caught anything big enough to keep; he caught a flounder, a brim and a big mangrove jack, which is an expensive reef fish. We gave the brim to the Ron's, had the flounder as part of our dinner and saved the big fish for later in the week.

Day 6 and 7 - Billabong sanctuary and about town

On Monday June 25th we went to Billabong Sanctuary with the boys parents.

Billabong sanctuary is pretty much what you'd expect from an Australian sanctuary - free roaming roos, koalas (which I discovered are smaller and fluffier up North), birds, snakes etc.

Two things made it different than a Victorian Sanctuary - cassowaries, which are like a small emu with head gear, and crocs, both freshies and the big estuarine beggers. As the weather had been cool and wet the crocs were not eating (they shut down in cold weather), but the show was still informative.

Under the fruit bat trees we saw dingos and cassowaries being fed (not one to the other), and I held a koala, juvenile croc and a carpet python (not together). The Americans were funny with the reptiles, one woman in particular kept jumping back during the demonstration every time the snake looked at her, and when it was her turn to hold it was keeping her arms out as far as she could while saying 'quickly- take- the- picture- quicky- quicky- quicky' through gritted teeth, and had also announced earlier that the croc felt slimy. I don't understand people like that who insist on holding reptiles and turn it into a big drama. Meanwhile the snake was more interested in my camera.

That night Chris' parents came round for dinner then we headed over to Ron's for a night out with the boys. We started off playing cards, then went to one of the other guys places for some fire twirling, which was a bit different. We then headed over to another place for late night munchies before heading off.

The next day was spent just hanging around town, and also planning the rest of the holiday. We went to the open air mall in the morning. We had a nice lunch then went looking for thongs, which I wanted for the beach. As it turned out the place I got the thongs from had a buy 2 pairs get a third free deal so I had to buy some other shoes as well, then one pair turned out to be too big (hard to tell with the security tag) so I exchanged them for two pairs which were on special and only came to $5 more then the pair I was exchanging... I had to get them... they made me.

After the mall we went home to plan for the following day, then went to sizzler for dinner, which was much yum yums. I bought a main to go with the buffet incase their wouldn't be enough I could have, but as it turned out I needent have bothered, the buffethad an excellent range and was very fresh. We then met up with Jen and Craig, who had just returned from the mines, for coffee at Cbar on the strand, then Chris and I went for a late night walk along the beach. I loved the novelty of being able to go for a pleasent walk at night in the middle of winter, people who go for late night walks in Melbourne at this time of year certainly don't do it because its relaxing.