Day 25: Townsville

At 9:30AM we said goodbye to the nice comfortable apartment that made us forget all our Henry troubles and set off to find a camp site with available space.

We settled into Rowes Bay with our little tent and inflatable bed and wondered where we would fit everything else we had.

There are quite a few long term residents here and a lot of children. The only space for our tent is opposite the children's play area. Thank god for earplugs. Some people are so established they have plants growing up their caravans and tents and have even made gravel paths with borders to their front door.

I hope it doesn't take that long for Henry to be fixed...

We dashed off in our hire car to get last minute provisions, as once we returned the car at 4PM it would be pedal power for the rest of the week.

After all our chores were done we walked from the airport to Henry and cycled back to the camp site.

Being a bit rusty on the bike I slowed down to have a drink of water and Oly ended up about 50 metres in front of me along a stretch of road near the seafront. A magpie swooped down from a tree and lunged at the back of Oly's neck... I couldn't believe what I was seeing, Oly flinched and I peddled as fast as I could calling "watch out!" as the bird did it again. At this point I was screeching "go, go, go!", this bird wouldn't leave him alone. We were trying to get away, I was behind Ol who was yelling "it's coming again!". I have never peddled so fast in my life, I was terrified!

All the way back to the camp site we couldn't stop laughing. We think the top of Oly's bike helmet, which was black and reflective white, may have caught the birds eye. Even if I have to cycle an extra 5km there is no way I am going down that road again!

Its started raining so we hope we have repaired all of the holes the tent got in Kings Canyon when the wind turned it over. It is very humid here but it is a nice change from the heat of the outback.

Em

Temp: 29c