Time out in Townsvlle

When we booked our flights to Australia and had agreed on the house swaps, a couple of traveller friends said to me “why Townsville, there is nothing there”. My reply said without any research was “why not”. The decision for coming to Townsville was that it is within a realistic driving distance to Cairns & Port Douglas, it’s the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and a couple of friends had mentioned that we had to visit Magnetic Island which is only 9kms across the water. But probably the underlying reason for coming to Townsville was that Geoff contacted Phil via the home exchange website and they started up an easy email dialogue right from the start. Even when Geoff found us on the internet when he googled us and left a comment on the blog to say as much, it proved he had a sense of humour and we knew we’d be alright in Townsville.  Check out this video on YouTube, it's really cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LumZGUBXJSA
From the photo’s and Geoff’s description I had a fairly high expectation of the house right from the start and I wasn’t disappointed, far from it. I hadn’t really read up on the area, other than a brief description on Lonely Planet so I didn’t have any pre conceptions about Townsville it self. The guide book and gives it a rave review citing that “there is lots to celebrate in this smart Coral-Sea-meets-outback-meets rainforest city. Public swimming pools and grassy, tree-lined parks dot the water’s edge and you can expect gourmet treat”. Not a bad a review and for once, I agree.

I very much enjoyed our walk along The Strand even though it was smack bang in the midday heat and humidity. It would have been better to have walked this stretch much later in the day and we shall do this before we leave town. The Strand has been very well planned and has a cosmopolitan feel with the waterfront which is hugged by hotels and pubs, trendier-every-day bars and cafes. It’s a gentle vibe in the daytime but I suspect it livens up a night time. I felt the same about Palmers Street, gentle by day but maybe you get to see more action in the evening. We must try and stay up late one night and see for ourselves. Flinders mall was pretty and I like the fact that it is pedestrians only. The city centre itself was a little disappointing, I don’t know whether Townsville is in the middle of some kind of refurbishment but a lot of the shops, restaurants and pubs were boarded up. Shame really because it lets Townsville down. Phil seems to have found his way around without using Geoff’s inbuilt GPS but I’m never sure how we get to the CBD from our house. I could find my way to Woolworth’s if need be, but that’s about it. It helped driving the car up Castle Hill to the lookout and I was able to better idea of this vast town. You’d don’t realise just how big it is and how far the city sprawls out with superb after suburb. I suspect there is a whole lot more room for expansion here in the next few years to come.

As I write this now, the skies are grey and the forecast says we have heavy rain to come for the next few days. Normally a sun worshipper at heart, this news would disappoint me but you know what, I am relieved just to get a break from the humidity. It makes my head feel full of mush and everything is an effort. I’m not sure whether it’s the intensity of the humidity or down to the fact that G&D have a very comfortable bed but I have been sleeping like a log, sometimes up to 12 hours a night. The humidity also makes me look like a wreck, I have been having seriously ‘bad hair’ days ever since we arrived in Queensland; it’s been over 2 months since my hair got some attention and the dark grey roots & bleached dry ends need work badly!

In fact the whole body needs work, me thinks a trip to a beauty salon is required this week, eyebrow wax and a manicure for starts. My jeans which I have put on today tell me that I have put on a few pounds since we left home, which is not entirely unexpected and probably down to zilch cardio exercise and all the beer, wine and food stuffs that I would run a mile from at home. I don’t so much mind the expanding waistline, I can live with that for another 6 weeks; it’s the un-toned jelly flesh that I can’t bear to see. Denise (or Geoff) have a cross trainer on the lower deck so maybe if the humidity stays low, I shall give this a go. Something is better than nothing hey.


Somehow and don’t ask me how, I have managed to loose my prescription reading glasses. One of arms broke off in Melbourne and I thought I’d put my specs in a safe place out of the way until we reached Townsville. However, I have had all the cases apart and they aren’t anywhere to be found. It’s a good job that I have a cheap ‘over the counter’ pair that I brought along as back-up but they are not ideal because my prescription is not the same in both eyes. Sometimes I have to put my hand over my bad eye and this drives Phil mad, he says this is not a good look, and he is right of course.

The other trauma is that my lovely slim line 35 quid digital camera has stopped working for no apparently reason at all. I’ve tried recharging the battery (several times) and Phil even picked me up a new memory card but all to no avail, it is as dead as a dodo. It’s not such a big deal because we have Phil’s camera, but he is so prissy about letting me use it and I’d really prefer my independence in the photography department.


Jean, Denise’s mum called on Saturday evening because she was worried that we were heading off to Cairns and hadn’t seen the cyclone warning. Luckily Phil had remembered Geoff’s advice about checking the weather before we set off for a long journey and we had checked the internet and had seen the weather warning. Phil couldn’t get the hob to work in the white house so Jean said that they’d come round the following morning to sort it out. The plan was to shoot out to The Willows Shopping Centre and check out the Sunday market but Phil got stuck into his OU and then the rain started to we decided to abandon this plan and just get some supplies from Woolworth’s instead.


The previous night the LPG bottle on the BBQ died just as Phil was in the last stages of cooking our dinner; luckily the new potatoes were just about done so Phil finished off the meat in the microwave so all was not lost. Jean and Graham turned up on Sunday just before midday. By this time Phil had worked out how to get the hob going; Jean showed us to operate the oven and Graham whipped out the LPG bottle and went somewhere down town to get us a new one. We sat on the deck and they gave us some local tips and some advice on Magnetic Island which was helpful. Turns out that Graham is originally from Ingham and by the sound of it we’d missed out on all of the attractions of the town and the surrounding area, Wallaman Falls and the wetlands to name a couple, so if the rain lets up, we may have to head that way again and do some more exploring.

It was gone 2 by the time Jean and Graham left, they had an appointment that afternoon and I don’t think they realised that Phil can talk for England once he gets going! Unfortunately they walked down the deck steps just as the heavens opened and must have got drenched going to their car. The rain showed no signs of abating so we decided to lock the doors and settle in for the rest of the day. Phil cooked steak pie which we had with a huge pile of mashed potatoes and some broccoli and carrots and very yummy it was too. A very typical English meal and perfect for a wet day. Full to the gunnels we settled ourselves in front of the television and watched some DVD’s.

We were just making preparations to go to bed when the landline rang, it was Jim, Daphne’s friend and neighbour to say that Phil's Aunt Daphne had had a fall in her bungalow and was in hospital. Luckily Jim found her and quickly called an ambulance which took her to Lowestoft general. Jim told us that she had broken her fema and was waiting to have an operation. Daphne is in her 80’s so a general anaesthetic and surgery is not good news. We are just thankful that Jim found her and acted so promptly. Phil phoned Jim this morning, apparently she had the operation yesterday and all went well. She is now recovering and is back on the ward so we shall wait to hear more news from Jim tomorrow when he goes to the hospital to visit. Oh dear.

It seems trivial to mention the weather after hearing about Daphne, but I’m afraid the forecast is still grim and is not looking good for the rest of the week. The rain come down really hard in the night and the pool is almost overflowing so I suspect we shall see either Chris or Graham sometime today to let some water out. Our original plan was that we would drive to Cairns and go and see Port Douglas this week but due to the cyclone in the far north we’ve had to abandon this plan. Hopefully if the weather conditions improve we can get there next week before we need to make plans to head back to Brisbane. Not sure what we shall do to amuse ourselves for the rest of the week (hairdressers, beauty salon, cross trainer, cinema for me) and Phil has a lot to catch up with OU course. We won’t be idle that‘s for sure. Right now Phil is cooking us a full fry up on the BBQ; Ozzie beef sausages, eggs, tomato’s, fried potato’s, beans, bread & butter and a mug of tea so I need to finish this and publish. With the rain lashing down outside and with the smell of the sausages coming from the BBQ it feels just like a summer's day back at home.