Townsville

We can't believe most of you are freezing while we are sitting outside in warm sunshine enjoying a drink! We left our overnight accommodation at Kooroorinya Falls this morning and can't help but wonder how we loved his place so much when our showers were tin sheds with cement floors and a nail on the back of the doors for towels! Plus there wasn't a blade of grass to be seen - but it was peaceful and we'd recommend it to anyone! 

            

     Our 4 star showers! - but it was the best shower with great pressure coming from a big shower head and lovely hot water.

                                    

Lunch stop was at Charters Towers where we saw green grass for the first time since leaving Murrabit!! Charters Towers seems to be a nice place and quite big - we only did a drive though the Main Street.

The trip today was all on bitumen so no chance of broken plates or dust sneaking in this time! The scenery  changed from the outback Channel Country which is very dry at present - to a more green and treed scenery here. We had picked out a campsite in a national park south of Townsville but found out our campers wouldn't fit so we are in a caravan park north of Townsville instead which is pretty much our scene as we can have a campfire, have nice spacial sites and it seems only grey nomads are here! Pity that's not us!! We will be here at least 2 nights so we can explore Townsville and wash our flannelette sheets and put them away! Evening temperatures of 15 don't require extra rugs and fluffy sheets! 

            

Here we are enjoying our campfire (we have put our jumpers on as sun had gone down and it's probably 20 degrees now!!) 

Now it's Saturday night and we are once again sitting around our campfire after a very very busy day in Townsville - dare I say lots of shopping! We all had little bits and pieces to get - well most of our purchases were little like pegs, soap containers and dust proof bags to store winter gear! But Darryl's was a big item - a new solar unit. He was finding the one we have struggles to generate enough power for the car fridge when we camp 2 nights. Hopefully this one will do the job! Now he has to find a spot for it in the car! We went to the city centre and shouted ourselves fish & chips lunch down by the water. This was a pleasant change from ham & cheese sandwiches or cruskits and cheese with our thermos tea.  It's a very pretty spot and walking through the park along the seafront, there were lots of familes enjoying the water and play facilities & picnic tables! How we wished our families were here to enjoy all this! That's Magnetic Island in the background - we have to explore this next time! 

         

We even popped into a pub and had a drink which was very nice. Look at that million dollar view!

            

We drove to the lookout which gives a great overview of the town. We are pretty impressed with the neat and tidy presentation of the town - and it's much bigger than we thought! 

        

At a botanic garden we saw this beautiful butterfly - the colours are amazing!

           

We've been on the road a week now and are pretty happy with our progress so far. The maps are out now and we are planning tomorrow's trip - either to Cairns or Mareeba - we are finding camping is restricted in Queensland and think we have been spoilt with Tassie and Victorian / NSW camping facilities. Often caravan parks are the only alternative. 

We hope everyone is well - pity the Crows spoilt my footy tipping - hope Port come up with the goods tomorrow! 

Love to everyone from the not grey nomads! 

Xxxxxxxx