Townsville

Day 1 - Check-Up/n-Suite!!

After some brekkie we packed up and headed for Townsville which is basically the jumping off point for Magnetic Island, ultimately where wanted to go.

The drive was long and poor Muriel, after the mountains and hills she had covered in the previous days, couldn’t get into gear properly which made it a bit of a strenuous journey for all 3 of us.

Our Wikki Camps app informed us there was a site in Townsville that had en-suite facilities, en-suite at a camp site? It was around $10 more than other sites but Intrigued we phoned ahead and booked a site for the night.

Arriving, we found we had a pretty decent slab (which we’ve decided is now a must, even though we didn’t know what to do with it and parked on top of it the first time we came across one) and a porta cabin with our own key. The cabin housed a loo, a shower and a sink with a bit of storage and charge points. WE LOVED IT. After a few weeks on the road it was bliss to have our own space. A space where you could have a dump without getting stage fright, a space where you didn’t have to clean up after the person before you, a space that you didn’t have to get dressed in the middle of the night and hunt down with a torch for a pee, a space where you could sing in the shower and basically take your time, HEAVEN!.

We are now pro’s at setting up camp.  It’s weird how we’ve each silently assigned ourselves tasks which we take on with vigour and expert precision. And surprisingly for Glenn, no procrastination. He has the awning up chairs out and elec plugged in in the usual time it would take him to switch on a kettle. So it was within minutes of arriving we could sit outside Muriel with a cold one admiring our portaloo thing!.

It was just the one though as we decided that Muriel was becoming a bit of a concern so we headed off to find a local garage. Finding one in walking distance to us, we fetched Muriel and drove her there for an initial inspection.

She needed some work, to the tune of around $800 (Glenn can fill you in on what the problem was later). As they couldn’t fit us in the next day, we agreed a date to take her in after we came back from Magnetic Island. We then went back to the site to lick our wounds, catch up with washing, cook up some food, drink wine and take unnecessary pee’s in our porto loo (coz we could)  before turning in for the night.

Day 2 - Exploring Townsville

It was a lovely hot day so we did a bit of washing. Not knowing the camp etiquette, we waited for it to dry whilst we lazed around camp so we could free the lines before heading out to explore Townsville.

Another pretty non-descript town but bigger. It did have a lovely esplanade thought with a few beaches and the usual signs to beware of the jellyfish (stingers) and thoughtful bottles of vinegar provided by the local council together with emergency numbers should you get too close. Rather puts you off a swim!  Also had free gas bbq areas where you could cook up a feast. Great outdoor living here.

After wandering around a bit we headed towards the shopping area where we dropped off my watch to get its battery replaced. This was the original watch we came away with, after its battery ran out I’ve had two cheapo’s since, one just died, one melted by deet! We then went to a few charity shops to find some warmer clothes that we would need later in Oz but both came away empty handed. Me, coz all that was on offer would make me look like Dame Edna, Glenn, coz he still couldn’t find the long shorts we’ve been searching for, it’s only been 7 months of looking, time to give up?

We dropped in a pub for a drink whilst we waited for my watch to be prepared and then after collecting it, we headed back to Muriel via another pub where we got chatting to a local nut before heading back to camp. The local nut asked us if we were on a pub crawl? Cheek! Clearly doesn’t know we are almost T total’s (must have spotted us in the first pub) what a nut!

It was early evening when we got back so we quickly prepared our tucker for the night (we’ve learnt the hard way not to cook after dark) before settling down for an evening of portaloo admiration.