Ok. After a sleep in, (we deserved one after all the rain keeping us awake) Ray took Henry for a walk. I woke up to silence and an empty bed and van. After doing snowflakes and enjoying the space, I got up and looked at the pools of water around the park. I could almost see the steam as the humidity increased minute by minute. I loved it. If I looked out my window at home in Melbourne and saw exactly the same scene, I would need 4 layers to venture outside to be nearly comfortable. Now I was making lemon water and sitting outside in my shortie pyjamas. Bliss!

Deciding what to do today was easy. Washing the bedding!

Ray rigged up a washing line under the awning and I washed the sheets in the washing machine. It was windy so we knew they would dry even though it was overcast.

We headed for the CBD to fill a prescription and thought we could have lunch out as well. We were amazed with the lack of people we saw and could have literally shot an arrow down the Main Street at lunchtime and not hurt anyone. There was no one around. It seemed ludicrous. I wondered if Townsville had the same issue that Melbourne had with the attraction of office workers working at home. There were a lot of hospitality and retail shop fronts for lease just as there were in Melbourne and I imagined a much more vibing place in days gone by.

We checked out a dress shop, The Captain flashing his cuteness and getting an invite into the air conditioned shop. Next door was a cafe so we stopped for lunch. Ray was busy checking out the ingredients of our drinks. Mine was mineral water with added magnesium. Pretty good. Ray’s was Bundaberg Sarsaparilla which had ginger root, licorice root, and sarsaparilla root. Anything with 3 roots was good in Ray’s book! (Sorry mum!)

We made our way to the Castle Hill Lookout. Castle Hill is an affluent suburb of Townsville. Driving up to the lookout reminded us of driving through the Hollywood Hills in the USA. The houses were built right on the winding roads and were modern and featured white walls and big glass windows. The lookout was 268 metres above sea level and gave 360 degree views of Townsville.

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There was a lot of work going on there to restore the walkways and install new handrails to each of the walks provided and each of those had a decent amount of stairs. It was obvious that the walk to the top of this lookout was a local fitness trail for locals to include as part of their usual wellness timetable. Many people were walking up the roadway in exercise gear, water bottles in hand. I love coming across trails used by the locals for fitness. It gives us a peek into how the “real” people here live.

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Continuing our exploration of Townsville, we headed towards the Marina. We drove in every access point even though every sign said “No Entry Permit Holders Only”. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Ray doesn’t see the point in unnecessary rules. He wanted to look at the new apartments being built along the waters edge, next to the Marina and we weren’t going to park, stop or leave our car. These rules didn’t apply to us. (I don’t bother saying anything anymore. He can talk his way out of any trouble he gets himself into- I’ll just watch.)

After being rule breakers, we drove around and saw a huge freight ship pulling out of port. It was the Polaris Highway on its way to Melbourne carrying a range of Polaris vehicles. It moved so slowly and was so huge. We weren’t the only ones stopping to watch.

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Magnetic island appears in the background of most photos that are taken on the right hand side of Townsville. We stopped by the port and saw the vessels that you can buy tickets to take you to the island. The vessel is pet friendly but unfortunately the island is not. This seemed like a lot to put The Captain through, so we decided not to go on the ferry just for the sake of it. We weren’t sure that The Captain could hold his bladder all the way there and back.

There is quite a bit of construction happening on the Marina, Flinders st (the main street in the CBD) at Castle Hill Lookout and numerous other Government owned sites, so the State Government is putting some funds into improving the facilities and infrastructure for the residents and visitors. This is fantastic because we are really impressed with Townsville. There is a lot of opportunity here and the country friendliness followed us from inland to the coast. The pace is slower and there’s a sea breeze that relieves the humidity that a few people mention.

Townsville is also home to a huge Military presence. the largest military base in Australia is in Townsville, Lavarack Barracks. There are close to 5,000 military personnel in the town and 500 recruits. To be honest, we haven’t seen anyone resembling anyone with a military presence but we have seen lots of army planes overhead. There is also an Airforce base here. The position of Townsville and its proximity to Southeast Asia made it the perfect place to establish a military base.

Townsville councils also seem to be very helpful. They put up signs to help you while you are driving along beach service roads. Ray was glad to see this sign he said, otherwise he might have kept driving. Very amusing man!