Townsville Day 2

Another laid back start to the day. Chatting to Ian, from Murwillumbah, who had been parked beside us. He was leaving for the north. Possibly we may catch up with him somewhere later on.

When we left the Coral Coast Caravan Park, we traveled on the Ingham Road until we turned left onto the Airport Road. We cruised along not really worrying too much about the direct track with the result we saw some of the residential areas.

Rowes Bay looking to Castle Hill

Our next major turn was to the left onto Rowes Bay. The nice quiet road took us past the Townsville Police Academy. The road took us along the coastal dunes to the village of Palarenda which is on the northern end of the Bay. It is a residential area. The dunes have been damaged and now being repaired as a result of the Cyclone Yasi earlier in the year. No doubt we will see a lot more as we go further north.

The return journey was back along the coast right around to the Strand again. We stopped at the Surf Club and walked around the swimming pool that obviously takes in sea water. It also appears to have sustained some damage from the cyclone, too. It is all working but some areas are fenced off.

We moved on and then drove up the very steep and winding road to Castle Hill Lookout. A large number of people were either walking/running/cycling up or down. It is a 2.9 km climb and would be a very hard ride let alone run.

Looking over RAAF Base

When we arrived at the top, the car park was very full so parking was at a premium. The view is 360 degrees although not in one spot. The first walk was so we could look over the RAAF Base/City Airport. A military exercise is taking place in the north so there were numerous movements of fighter aircraft and helicopters along with numerous civilian services. It is a very busy airport.

Looking towards the Army Lavarack Barracks in the background

Townsville CBD and Port

Rowes Bay and Magnetic Island

The views from Castle Hill are very interesting as there are 3 areas overlooking the eastern part of Townsville while the  reminder covers the rest of the city and suburbs. One highlight is a complete view of Magnetic Island with the constant movement of varying sizes of barges to and from the mainland to the Island. While there we saw a large ship entering the channel with 2 tugs moving out to meet it. Prior to that we noticed some very large barges moving out.

After the Lookout we went down near the Strand to have morning tea of cappuccino and toast. A very busy alfresco cafe with good service and goods. We spent about half an hour there.

After leaving the Strand we partially backtracked to the Caravan Park to get some information. Then we drove out to the Bushland Beach. We were amazed at the number of homes and development out there. We drove past Baf and Sharon's beautiful home set among many others. In that area, the homes have incredible views of Magnetic Island roughly to the east as well as wonderful views to the west.

That area had an airfield on it during the Second World War. Quite a few buildings in Townsville were taken over during the War by American Military as were airfields that were quickly constructed.

Then we returned by a new link road to the city. There is so much area available for development. This area is apparently growing very fast.

The rest of the late afternoon was taken up with relaxing and chatting to fellow travelers.