Not long ago I started dating a lady by the name of Christine, who suggested that Australia was actually larger than I realised, apparently there was more land north of Noosa, I know I didn’t really believe it either, but bear with me. She suggested that there was actually a lot more land north of Noosa, and even a couple of large “by Australian standards’ cities. One of these cities is known as Townsville, Christine went on to say that she is actually from there, grew up up there, has family there, and knows people who still live there. This reminds me of the time Ross told me that people actually live full time in Canberra.

Christine decided that she would prove that this land to the north of Noosa actually did exist and that we would take a trip up there to catch up with some of the people who dwelt there.

The flight 

Here in Brisbane we have an Airtrain, it runs all the way from the Gold Coast through to Brisbane Airport, it is relatively cheap and efficient. Unfortunately it never seems to be operating at the same time as the flights that we want to catch. As such we were out of bed nice and early so that we could drive up to Brisbane Airport, through the tolls, find the parking, and then navigate the courtesy bus to the terminal. It takes around 2 hours to fly from Brisbane to Townsville indicating that there is even more land between Brisbane and Townsville than there is between Brisbane and Sydney, you learn something new everyday!!

The Strand  

We disembarked from the plane into the warm air of far North Queensland, now all of my life I have been told of the insupportable heat that is far North Queensland, it turns out that I happened to be in far North Queensland for the only time in recent history when the daily temperatures have been relatively similar to those of Brisbane. So it was actually rather comfortable. We collected our bags and made our way out to the taxi ranks.

We caught up with Christine’s mum, Mina, who had prepared a delicious breakfast in anticipation of our arrival. After a couple of hours of catching up, and checking out Mina’s garden that was full of bananas, lychees and other delicious tropical fruit trees, we made our way down to The Strand. 

The Strand itself is an area along the foreshore of a rather large bay that Townsville is built around. The area has been done up with large concrete paths, a truck load of electric barbecues, seating and awesome exercise equipment, similar to the ones on the Gold Coast where you have chin up bars, dip bars, parallel bars and other body weight equipment. Unlike Logan where we just have equipment that is targeted at the elderly, even though over 60% of the population is under 45. 

We wandered along The Strand taking in the sights, sounds and signs, that warned of the procedures to undertake in the likely event that you happen to be attacked by an irikandji or box jelly fish. The warnings ranged from take action with ice and hot water, to prepare for imminent death. 

I was under the impression that there was no chance of surfing in far North Queensland due to the lack of waves, stingers (box and irukandjii jellyfish) and salties (a rather relaxed name for vicious man eating crocodiles). However on this day the wind was blowing an absolute gale and there were actually surfable waves in the two large netted off swimming areas. I am not sure what the nets were supposed to do against man eating crocodiles, but I guess they could give you a false sense of security, and possibly a sporting head start. 

We wandered all the way along The Strand to Kissing Point, which was originally a lookout point and gun position during the second world war. 

After our walk we collected some supplies for a barbecue in the evening and made our way over to the Airbnb for a siesta.  

The barbecue 

In the evening we wandered back down to The Strand taking our goodies with us. We set up at one of the electric barbecues near a large seating area and started cooking up a feast. I had let Paige know that we were at the strand cooking dinner, and she decided that she was going to come down to see us. Paige has been up in Townsville, apparently she knew that there was in fact something to the North of Noosa, studying nursing at the university there. While Christine was catching up with many of her good friends, I was listening to all of Paige’s Townsville adventures. We ate our way through the stack of food, caught up on all of the adventures and generally enjoyed the sights, sounds and warm atmosphere that is The Strand in the summer time.

Castle Hill

The next morning Christine and I got up early and made our way to the foot of Castle hill. We found some parking and then started the trek up the Goat Track to the look out at the top. The Goat track is a fairly rugged path that contains a significant number of stairs. Someone has numbered the stairs, however be warned that the numbering starts from about half way to the top. The Goat Track was an excellent way to build up an appetite for breakfast. 

The view from the top of castle hill is nothing short of spectacular, you can take in the majority of Townsville, the surrounding bay and right out to Magnetic Island. I would suggest going for the walk early as I could imagine that it would get rather hot during the day.

Dinner and another catch up with Paige 

In the evening we wandered back out to Mina’s place for dinner. Paige and Bryce were going to meet us there. I spent a bit of time chatting with Christine’s brother, Chris, who was working on converting various images and fractals into a series of mathematical equations, so that they could be scaled to be used for various purposes including logos. Mina prepared a delicious roast pork and vegetable dinner for all of us. We all sat together at a large marble dining table that Christine’s dad had made some years previous. We ate delicious food and chatted into the evening.  

Magnetic Island 

In the morning Christine and I wandered across to Magnetic Island on the second ferry of the day. It was lucky that we didn’t catch the first ferry, as Magnetic island is fairly relaxed and the car hire company doesn’t open until they feel like it. We had to wait for a while for them to open, and had we been earlier, we would have had longer to wait. The car hire company opens at 8:30am, but I am not sure where it is 8:30 am when it opens, possibly in Perth.

Once we had our vehicle we drove to a point on the east of the Island where you could walk out to a WWII fort. We took a look at the place where they had secured a couple of massive guns that had been provided by the Americans. We also had a look through the spying outpost that would have housed all of the intelligence officers working hard to keep Australia safe from the invaders. On our journey we caught up with the resident Koala who was relaxing in a tree having eaten his fill of gum leaves. Once we were done wandering through the various historic remains of the battlements. We made our way over to the other side of the island to take in the view and eat some lunch. 

After lunch we stopped at the famous Alma Bay, Scotty’s stomping ground for the majority of his early years, so that we could have a swim. Here there were no nets to keep out stingers, salties or any other wayward sea creatures. We swam for a while and even did a bit of body surfing in the small waves that were rolling through. 

After our swim we made our way back to the accomodation for a siesta. For our last evening in Townsville we caught up with Paige, Bryce and his parents at their place for another evening of laughter, food and conversation. This was a fantastic way to cap off our stay in Townsville.