Day 27: Townsville

Oly lured me down the magpie road again.

Henry was being moved to B & J Autos, the only VW specialist in Townsville, where he would hopefully be revived. It was kind of sad looking in him, stripped of our necessities. He was very messy too and we didn't have time to tidy him up. Since he broke down the only times we have been in him we have grabbed what we needed and locked him up.

Back to the magpie. Oly said we would be fine and I let him go ahead of me. As we approached the stretch we saw the magpie position itself on top of a lamp post ready to swoop. I panicked and started peddling faster and so did Oly, all the time he was looking behind which made him not go as fast as he could have and as a result slowed me down. I didn't' want to overtake as I figured safety in numbers. Oly started shouting, "it's flying after us!" I started squealing... Oly is STILL looking behind! We passed some road workers who said "G'day" and all I could manage was "there's a bird chasing us" as we flew past on our bikes. (no pun intended)

We bought some delicious sausages from a butcher on the way home and eagerly returned to the camp site, salivating. I set up our gas burner and got out our plates and corn wraps. It was when I went to chop up some onions I realised that we had no utensils or cutlery... it's really hard cooking with plastic knives.

Em

Day 26: Townsville

It didn't stop raining.

We were still awake at 4AM battling with the drips from the ceiling. The rain was so hard and noisy we couldn't sleep even if we were dry.

It first started dripping on the pillow and then on Oly's head. Then we found the other secret, sneaky drips that were slowly creating pools of water soaking our duvet (dooner).

We had to get up and move the bed over to the other side of the tent (all of 50cm) but as that area was full of our clothes, wash bags and other stuff we had to move all that too.

So we spent our first night in our new tent home with two buckets on the floor (well one dishes bucket and one egg carrier) and a torch scanning the ceiling looking for other leaks.

I remember the last time we looked at the clock it was 6:30AM.

The humidity at the moment is 73%. The rain was very welcome but it didn't make it any fresher.

It was very overcast but warm. Oly and I got up around noon and jumped on our bikes to explore the city.

Townsville is very small. It only took us 10 minutes to cycle to the city and 2 minutes to cycle around.

Once again we went down The Strand just like the rest of Townsville had. It was full of people playing games, exercising, picnicking, enjoying the water park and in the sea there were people learning to surf. We love it. Plus, of course, there is the Cold Rock Ice Creamery!

When it started raining we went back to our tent, tired from our afternoon of fun.

I really hope it doesn't rain as hard as it did last night... but it will take a lot more than that to break our spirit!

Em

Temp: 30c

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

Day 24: Townsville

We treated ourselves to another night in luxury in our room with a view and booked an extra night. This meant I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn and Ol didn't have to try and get me up at the crack of dawn... everyone's happy!

Our day involved running around and getting all the bits we would need for our week of camping in the tent.

Just before we were going out to dinner at 7:30PM "Wolf Creek" came on the movie channel so we watched it...

I am so glad we didn't see that movie before we went to the outback. Ol started watching it saying "this is just like our adventure!" by the end he was really disturbed. It's not a good advert for Australia that's for sure.

We have become quite partial to Thai food since we arrived in Australia and Oly chose this as his birthday dinner. Unfortunately it was really bad and it has put him off Thai for a while. Shame there isn't a Nando's here!

Em

Temp: 30c

Some Extra Pics (OJG)

Ok, I thought I would publish some extra pictures that I quite like, I don't think you have seen any of these. I suggest you click on each one to get the full impact.





Wheat Belt (WA)










Running Dragon (NT)















Pink Rose (WA)

















Wave Rock (WA)








Kata Tjuta "The Olgas" (NT)



That last one is a Panoramic (I told you I would get better at them!), the full size image is more than 19,000 pixels wide, or about 60 times bigger than the thumbnail above. Poster time :)

Finally, I have this little picture left, please click on it to see the special detail, I won't tell you what!

Oly