Townsville is the largest urban centre north of the Sunshine Coast, considered by the locals as the unofficial capital of North Queensland. It is the home to some of the world’s largest copper, zinc and nickel refineries due to its proximity to Asia. Townsville is a bustling, vibrant city boasting diversity in landscape, lifestyle and many different experiences.
The city butts up against a most incredible reddish rock formation which is a good workout for anyone looking for a good vertical trail. One could also experience barra fishing, snorkel in the fringing reefs around Magnetic Island, scuba at the Great Barrier Reef, bird watch in the surrounding wetlands or skydive the Strand.
Townsville boasts some 300 plus days of sunshine per year and we were here on one of the rainy days, warm to hot and wet. Lucky for us the rain happened this morning as we dragged our heals before getting out. We spent a bit of time in the state of the art cruise ship terminal where they had, better than home wifi - downloading our local paper in mere seconds, wow. This also gave us a chance to download some netflix shows as well as put in some face time with family back home. We jumped on the shuttle bus as the rain stopped and strolled the 10 minutes over to the Aquarium. The Aquarium here, known as the Reef Headquarters Aquarium, gives you the opportunity to see the Great Barrier Reef as it is the world’s largest living reef aquarium. They have an incredible underwater viewing tunnel that allow you to immerse yourself in the living coral. It is also home to the Australian government’s national centre for the Great Barrier Reef. A great rainy day experience. Next door, conveniently located, is the Museum of Tropical Queensland, a great museum which features the artifacts from the ship named “The Pandora”. Pretty cool, as it puts the exclamation mark on the history of the Mutiny on the Bounty. For you still playing along at home on this, The Pandora is the ship that sailed back to Tahiti to collect 14 of the mutineers that did not go on to Pitcairn. They were imprisoned in what was called the Pandora’s box. The Pandora struck the Great Barrier Reef and sank, as the ship was sinking one of the officers opened the Pandora’s Box to help the prisoners get out, 3 did not make it. From what I recall, 3 more died on the way back to Great Britain, 4 where acquitted, 1 let go on a technicality and 3 were hung. The Museum also houses some other great historical artifacts from some yesteryear. Because the rain had stopped we were able to walk the Strand, a beautiful shore lined 2.8 kilometre walkway ending at a beautiful natural rock enclosed pool, nice. We stopped about halfway for a picture perfect FB able lunch at the Longboard Bar and Grill. Excellent. As we walked the final 30 minutes to the pool, I had noticed how hot it was getting even with a good cloud cover and felt it was time to apply some sunscreen. Jan had pointed out that this city had the highest UV radiation in the world as was a bit surprised I had not put on any sunscreen as of yet, so my bad. Feeling a bit warm as I type this, think I got a bit burnt.
To sum up Townsville, the words would be friendly and laid back. The town came out for us, there were volunteers wearing pink all over town, helping us out. There was even a free hop on hop off type bus running the full length of The Strand back to our shuttle stop, which we did take to get back as it was getting late. back to the terminal for a bit more of the free wifi before jumping back on board for 4:30 all aboard time. A great day with a great sail away tonight. Cairns tomorrow and a visit to Green Island, way out in the Great Barrier Reef. A few pics of our day, hope you enjoy…
Quote of the Day - “Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others.” - Brian Tracy
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