Townsville Qld July 30 2015

Townsville Qld July 30 2015

Just a transport day today: Palm Cove to Townsville down the fabulous Bruce. I suppose I shouldn't keep slagging it off, but really, considering the sheer volume of traffic, not to mention the numerous tiny towns and cane-train crossings, its just downright dangerous. From Palm Cove its a 75km run in 1 hour, and that’s taking the back-way off the bypass. And then it was traffic as usual, anything from 70 to 90kph all the way down to Cardwell, about a 150km, where we, and 10,000 other caravans stopped for lunch. The Bruce runs right through Cardwell and is right on the beach. It’s a small, nice town and strangely, while we sat there feeding our faces, the Bruce was eerily quiet, except for a few odd trucks cruising through.

Cardwell Qld

Cardwell Qld 

Cardwell Qld

After lunch we noticed that most of the caravans had left, so we set of expecting the worst - but wait - a minor miracle happened and the road was clear ahead of us and we hit 6th gear and 100kph for the first time. This was just glorious and we gobbled up the miles most of the way down to Ingham, where we came up behind the usual gaggle of dawdlers: cars, small trucks and the odd caravan. We got lucky because we had driven through Ingham a few time just last week and knew the road; so when they all slowed to a crawl through the town in the left lane, i nipped past in the right, knowing that the road went to the left a ways up the road.

The road was again miraculously clear and we zipped on down to Townsville, where we had booked a spot for the night in the sold-out Big4. It’s a fair old way out of town, on the north side and right next to the Bruce and the railway line and it’s 500m from the van to the loo, but there’s no alternative, so we settled in. Five minutes later, we headed into Townsville itself, to the Strand actually, for an ice-cream and a walk along the boulevard. This is probably the best part of Townsville: it has cafes, jetties, playgrounds, beaches, water-play parks and, this year an added bonus. There is some festival or other on this weekend and there are artworks, street painters and sand castle sculptures all along its length.

Townsville Qld

Townsville Qld

The sand sculpting was pretty awesome

Townsville Qld

Townsville Qld

Townsville Qld

Townsville Qld

Townsville Qld

These are ‘3d’ chalk paintings on the footpath, with magnifying glass set up on a tripod in exactly the right spot so you get the full effect.

Townsville Qld 

Townsville Qld

Anyhow, that’s us for the day.