Two months in Townsville.

[drron]

Now to Sunday.despite spending now over 3 months in Townsville in winter I had not climbed Castle hill.mainly because I really don't climb well.Downhill no problem.So today was the day.taken some extra fluid along plus my trusty walking pole.
Ascend via the goat track.
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I stopped quite a few times for pictures so fortunately only had to have the one stop for exhaustion.
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[drron]

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A lookout about half way up at the junction of 2 tracks.
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Nearly there.
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And the view to the west as you join the road for the last few metres.
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[drron]

Townsville station and the super car track.
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Jezzine barracks and Belgian Gardens.
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Pallarendra and the town common.
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The airport.
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[drron]

The new Cowboys stadium and the beautiful old railway station.
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Military traffic.
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Then I noticed something out of place.
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A zip line.
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[drron]

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[drron]

So time to head down.
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I came down those stairs of the goat track.But now I went down the cudtheringa track.It was longer than the goat track so I figured not as steep.That was true but the first third from the start down was rough and quite slippery rocks in places.definitely needed my walking pole.
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[drron]

Good view of the zip line about 2/3 of the way down.
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Down to the road.The Bouganvillea grow well here.
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[drron]

Headed now to Queen's Park where there was a free concert.Passed one of the projection points for the Castle Hill light show.
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A nice park with lots of magnificent trees but somewhat crowded today so a picture of only one tree.
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Now the RAR was performing but it wasn't until 1730 and it was just past 1300.The only food was pizzas or ice creams so I decided to head back to the apartment and have a nice long hot shower.Good views of the Hill as I walked back to the car.
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These were shots of the meeting place of the 2 tracks.
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[drron]

The last bit of the walk back was quite steep and my muscles were complaing.Passed some nice places with Castle Hill as their backyard.
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Felt a lot better after my shower.Monday was extremely busy and short staffed as well as a few off with the flu.I stupidly said it is years since I had a bad cold,That night the sniffles started and by Tuesday 3 days of a constantly running nose started.to top it off my quads ached all Tuesday and the car got a few scratches parking at the local shopping centre.
Fortunately not too bad by Friday for the flight home and over it by Sunday so all good for the start of our trip on Monday.

 

[drron]

Friday and time for home.There was a display in the departures part of the Terminal of WW2 photos.
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A captured Japanese plane.
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And a visit from General Macarthur.
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Annoyed the Europcar rep as now he had paperwork to do at 5pm on a Friday.Said he couldn't give me a copy of the report as he said i need to get photos.being a little suspicious i showed him I already had a photo.

As usual the secondary explosives test though it really was a primary test as done before security.
In the QP they were serving a wonderful Australian classic-bangers and rice.

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Now I had had a frustrated morning as I tried to select a seat for the evening's flight.Kept getting the message-Sorry but your selection is no longer available.For every seat I tried.So checked in with their choice-1C but on an all economy 717.
When the doors had closed the purser came over to me and handed me a bottle of water saying =welcome back drron.
I was the only person to get this so had a few wondering just who i was.Probably the only OWE on that flight.

So that is Townsville.Over the combined 3 months I got to really like the place for winter months.Lots of good walks,plenty of events and some quite reasonable restaurants.GYO our favourite.
But mention for Tobin fishtails.One of the best fish and chip shops i have tried.The crumbed scallops and bug tails are fantastic and the coral trout superb.

And a plug for the Cowboys Leagues Club.Seniors(over 55) can get an annual membership for $6.60.Others have to pay $10.gets you 10% off food and drinks.Pays for itself with one or two visits.Reasonable food at reasonable prices.Staff fantastic.

Also a shout out to the good people of Townsville.In general the most polite place in Australia.Plenty of please and thank yous.Hope to see you again.

 

[OZDUCK]

Thanks for the TR. You will see some pretty different scenery in a few days time.