Monday 21^st November

Townsville is a beautiful city, especially the city centre, which has gorgeous old buildings.  Big, elegant pubs with wide verandahs, nothing too badly desroyed or modernised.  The suburbs sprawl out for miles and are, well, suburban, but everyone we talk to is very enthusiastic about living here.  There are lots of parks, pools, free facilities.  And for us the best feature – welcoming and hospitable family and friends up and down the region!

The downside: it is very hot, there are beautiful beaches and waterways but…they are inaccessible because of beasties of the sea, big and small.  I am looking forward to getting further south away from the stingers and the crocs.

We have been able to spend a bit of time with Lindy, John and Sharon, my ex-Tasmanian in-laws.  They welcomed us very kindly and have lent us their big strong car.  We left Michael’s big strong but less useful ute (ie 2-seater) with them.  Michael was our chauffeur and guide.  We were particularly impressed with Castle Hill, a big rocky prominence in the centre of Townsville.  Normally I would have wanted to walk up there – how pathetic, driving, and not taking the opportunity for exercise.  But…it is, as I keep saying, VERY hot, and Castle Hill is a big bare rock, with no shady trees.  If I had tried to walk I probably would have had to be airlifted off the side of the hill, a tomato-faced puddle of a person.  Much easier to glide effortlessly up the steep road to the summit in airconditioned comfort.  The view from the top is breathtaking.  We were able to get our bearings and look 360 degrees around a big chunk of Northern Queensland.

Lindy and John have recently moved into a big residential facility in the outskirts of Townsville.  They are very happy there, and showed us around, before feeding us a delicious feast.  Their house is spacious and comfortable, one of 400 in the facility.  In the big amenities block there is a restaurant, gym, swimming pool, hairdresser, clubrooms, pool tables, bowling green.  John is going to join a bowls team; Lindy is going to do yoga and water aerobics.  The instructor for both of these activities, she says, is a very fit and lithe 82 year old resident…

Michael lives in his favourite suburb, Douglas.  He has a comfortable apartment there and says it is the best part of Townsville.  Close to the army base, the hospital and the university, it is a very pleasant leafy suburb with winding streets and lots of greenery.  Not as much as before the cyclone, apparently, but still – it is leafy!

Our boat guests took us out to dinner last night, in Palmer Street, which is The Restaurant Strip.  We had the option of eating crocodile steak but…I ate chicken.  The city centre, as I have said, is really beautiful, with big spacious pubs lining the streets, but there are very few shops.  There are a few clothes shops, and the very lovely Mary Who Book Shop, but otherwise the shops have been shunted out to shopping malls in the suburbs.

We aren’t sure when we are leaving; either this afternoon or tomorrow.  It depends on wind and weather.  I have no idea whether there will be internet access at our next few anchorages.  I have learned just to go with the flow re this sort of hiccup in my cyberlife, after so many months with intermittent and dodgy access in the islands.