TOWNSVILLE - [2 DAYS] 02/10/12 & 03/10/12

TUESDAY
We all had a lazy start to the morning with breakfast at Bistrone, then off to enquire about  and book ferries to Magnetic Island for Wednesday morning.  Following this we all went to the Townsville Tropical Aquarium.  It was very busy with school holidays, but it was a special place enjoyed by all.   The colours of the variety of tropical fish were staggeringly intense.

We wandered across to The Strand where Dot & Michael caught up with David & Lorraine Law [ex Rotary Club of Lilydale] and son Andrew & granddaughter [based in Townsville] Kaitlin for a leisurely lunch on the foreshore. They had been following the blog and saw that we were at Mission Beach last weekend and by chance we were all in Townsville at the same time, after the Qld long weekend.  It was good to catch up with David & Lorraine who were flying back to the Yarra Valley in their Piper plane on Thursday or Friday.

Tony and Jen had a nice lunch elsewhere and went onto to do a few things for themselves, including a nano nap!!

Walking along the Strand foreshore was very pleasant and is  a great place for children with the playground and water playground facilities.  The historical buildings in the area are very pleasing to the eye, along with the massive curtain figs in the gardens & foreshore.

The evening meal for all was at the Townsville Cowboys Leagues Club….mass produced at an economical price…possibly subsidised by the large range of pokies.   Back to Rydges at an early hour.

 

WEDNESDAY
Alarms were set for an assembly of 7:15am to head to the Magnetic Island [MI] ferry terminal for a 7:45am departure.  The 8klm  trip to MI took 20 minutes, and then onto a hop-on/hop-off bus to Horseshoe Bay [ the top part of the island].   We had breakfast at one of the few opened bar/restaurants……the young Irish waitress seemed to be very possessive of her section of the eating area and was very curt and abrupt with another waitress [ in her 50s] over directing us to her area and attempting to take our order.  This other waitress described the place as worse than Faulty Towers, especially in the kitchen area as we waited for our orders.

Tony investigates the island information book and decides on a walk to  Balding Bay of 1.7klm in an estimated time of 1hour.   The walk is up and over the granite strewn steep ridge to a secluded bay.  The out and back walk definitely walked off breakfast.  Upon return to Horseshoe Bay we were back on the bus back to the ferry terminal and swapped to another bus to head to Picnic Bay one of the closest points to Townsville.     The bus trips are not direct to your destination, instead meandering around the normal bus route on the island….. a great way to get an appreciation with what is on the island.

Following lunch, back on the bus for return to the ferry terminal for the 3.00pm ferry back to Townsville.  We all slept on the return trip through the white caps due to the strong constant wind, which had been blowing all day.  Back to Rydges for housekeeping or dozing time till evening dinner.   All of us were looking for something fairly light.