Townsville Proper

Gravel Pit south of Charters Towers

Well here we are in Townsville for the next year. We will use this place as our base to visit Queenslands' best and most beautiful. It only took 2 days to arrive here once we left the beautiful Carnarvon Gorge with 1 overnight stop  south of Charters Towers in yet another gravel pit on the way. Sunset again was stunning (thank you Michael) although waking up to the overwhelming stench of cow poo was a little less exhilarating. The route we took was via Roma, Emerald and Charters Towers. All outback station/mining country with the best beef you have ever tasted  - thank you Maranoa Beef. 

Well Townsville isn't anything like I expected. This is a city and just like any city it has traffic and infrastructure issues. Nestled in the Beautiful Hervey Ranges and banked on the stunning barrier reef  overlooking Magnetic Island this is a city of contrasts. The houses are in turn gorgeous and ugly, roads are incredibly bad and the traffic is non-stop. The natural features are beautiful and the man-made ones a blot on the landscape. It is tropical but has elements of the outback with gum trees and red dirt while the city is over looked by magnificent Castle Hill which is only a few metres off being classed a mountain.People are exceptionally friendly in Queensland, much more so than in other states and the service is excellent whether country or city and that is the most positive thing going for this town. 

On Top of Castle Hill overlooking Townsville and Magnetic Island

We stayed at the Coral Coast Caravan park initially but shifted this weekend to the Bush Oasis Caravan Park in Nome because the noise of traffic, aircraft and trucks was horrible. Getting anywhere in town is a nightmare with all the road upgrades being undertaken. I am hating the commute to work already. Before heading out of town on Saturday we went down to the The Strand a fairly new foreshore development with cafes, restaurants and night markets. It really is Townsvilles' best feature and well used by the locals. I think we will be coming here regularly. 

The Bush Oasis CP is 17 minutes from town and looks over the hills surrounding the city.  It is pretty, quiet and relaxing. Over the road is an animal sanctuary and down the road is a place called Alligator Creek which is attached to the Bowling Green Bay National Park. All absolutely stunning. I will fill you in as we visit each place in detail. The people in charge here are incredibly friendly and willing to do whatever it takes to make us comfortable.

Michael (looking impressed - not) on Castle Hill

We arrived in this park after dating every park within 50km's of the city having picked a beautiful site overlooking a creek on glossy green lawn. Michael drove into the area, carefully backed in and proceeded to unhook before the unthinkable happened - the caravan sank through the grass into a muddy malais. Bloop, bloop!! Whoops, apparently this area is only used by campers and is very (very) wet. Out comes the recovery gear and we reattach before we reassess. We decide to head for the other side of the creek which has hard compacted soil. To get there we must traverse a little bridge and Michael (cyclops) Hodgkins decides he will back over it. He ends up collecting a tree before sheepishly making a lap of the park and coming in forward. Bottom! Oh well, nothing worth having is easy as they say. 

Finally we establish ourselves under a beautiful tree and voila we are home.