Travel Location: Oceania,Australia,Queensland,Brisbane

Holiday to Townsville

(Self proclaimed capital of Tropical North Queensland)

We had some air miles to use up before November courtesy of my old employer BA, so we had a look on the internet for places to go that were with in reach of the air miles I had accrued. After about a week we decided to try out Townsville primarily because we had never been there (and what better excuse do you need some times) and secondly we wanted to see how Amelia faired on a plane (would she sleep all the way there or scream the wings off and force us to return to Brisbane 5 minutes after take-off).

We took an early morning Qantas flight and we are happy to report Amelia seemed to cope quite well and so we got to Townsville around lunchtime and having checked in it the Holiday Inn went for lunch at a nearby cafe. In the afternoon while Amelia had a long sleep in her pushchair to recover from jet-lag we went around the aquarium Reef HQ. By the evening we were suffering the effects too and so ate at the Hotel restaurant.

The following day we walked all along the waterfront to the Rockpool where Amelia dipped her toes in the water and we had a nice lunch at the Greek restaurant opposite.

Thursday we had intended to get up early and walk up a castle hill a local landmark but Amelia keeps us up ’til late and we slept in, it was quite a humid day too so we decided to go to the Botanical gardens instead. The gardens were very nice and we hide in the shade at the hottest part of the day. Amelia liked the Rose garden most of all I think.

Friday, we decided to have a chill out day by the beach, there was a bit of a breeze so although it was sunny it was not too hot. We took a stroll along the sea front and got some lunch from a chippy the local fish is Barramundi, we have had fish and chips a few times but we never expected these 2 large pieces of fish, I did not eat all the chips I was so stuffed.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing its a bit difficult doing anything else when you just had whale and chip for your lunch. On the way back to the hotel to get changed for Dinner I noticed a new sign in the beach, “Beware Crocs about” The only safe places to swim in the sea around Northern Queensland is behind a stinger net, we missed the worst of the stinger season but being more risk averse in my old age I decided not to risk the water even though the water temp was a balmy 24deg C.

Saturday was over cast so we had our breakfast at a cafe then went to the museum of Tropical Queensland. The museum was a nice surprise I was not expecting much to be honest but it was very good. There was a big exhibition devoted to the story of the little known British war ship HMS Pandora, the Pandora was was sent to recapture and return to England for trial the mutineers of HMS Bounty.

The largest part of the exhibition is a a quarter sectional full size mock up of the HMS Pandora which almost fills the atrium/cafe area (not including the masts), several times a day you can have a go at being a gunner crew of a British Man-O-War. Although not the navy type myself, I did volunteer to man the gun for display purposes of the younger children in the 12-15 people in the audience. See the pictures of me running out the gun and aiming it, thanks to me and my gun crew aimer on the opposite side of the gun we managed 2 direct hits to a multi million dollar yacht in the marina! Time to make a quick getaway.

When we left the museum it was nearly 1pm and raining cats & dogs so we ducked (where have all these animals come from!) inside a Chinese restaurant for lunch before we caught the afternoon flight home, the people were just closing but we explained the situation and they very kindly let us sit down, the food was very good and so was the baby sitting service. The owner took a shine to Amelia and one lady ask if she could hold her, ‘Please do I said’ she then asked if she could go next door to show her to her friends next door. We got a meal and baby sitting service in one bargain.