After a relaxing couple of days at Molongle creek our next stop was Townsville. However, I had a little bit of a dilemma. I only needed to stop in Townsville for one night. I wanted to take Alec up to castle hill and that would only take one afternoon. And I never like caravan parks in large towns or city’s. They are often cramped, on a major road or full of dodgy permanent residents.

So I decided we would live it up for a night and stay in a hotel. A night out of the camper would do us good. I found a place on the strand. The strand being the foreshore area not far from the centre of town. The area has parks, swimming areas, cafes and restaurants. It’s the place to be in Townsville.

The view from our hotel room.

The view from the hall way in front of our room . The camper didn’t talk to me for a couple of days. Thats Castle hill in the background

Arriving early we made our selves at home in our new digs. Then went exploring. We had a walk along the foreshore and a play in the park and on the beach. Then drove up to Castle hill to watch the sunset.
Castle hill is a 286 metre high granite monolith in the heart of Townsville. From the top you get great views of Townsville and the surround areas. It is also a very popular spot for locals to lose those un-wanted kilo’s.

It is a bit of a favourite spot of mine. Peta and I visiting Castle hill on the way home on both our Cape York trips. The first time we had dinner at the top, we went all fancy and brought takeaway chicken and chips. We ate this as we watched the sun set. A lot of the walkers and runners that had just made it to the top gave us some very hungry looks and the occasional funny comment.

Alec and myself in 2016

Peta in 2011

One of the many views from Castle hill. This one looking over the water. Our hotel is the big white building on the right.

As you might already know we are not very good at sticking to plans. So why would Townsville be any different. It turned out that Peta’s sister Megan was in town for work. So plans were changed and we stayed a another day so we could catch up. Megan had to work the following day so Alec And I had a day to fill in. We went and had a look at the aquarium.

Megan and I were both keen to try and walk up Castle hill. We organised to meet up after she was finished at work and have a go. I wasn’t sure if I would make it. I had to carry Alec. Following the road up it was a 3 km to the top. I was surprised how well I did but was sore the next day.

Auntie Megan and Alec.

Hooray I made it. Alec isn’t getting any lighter.

Townsville at night. 

After our expensive but good stay in Townsville we had approximately a week to get to Cairns. The plan was to slowly travel north and explore some of the area between Townsville and Cairns.
We left Townsville and made good time. By lunch time we found ourselves in Ingham and started looking for a camp. North east of Ingham I found a caravan park in the coastal town of Lucinda.
This was lovely place and because I couldn’t decide where to go next we stayed the entire week. Lucinda had everything we needed. A clean and tidy caravan park with a pool, a playground only 20 metres away from our camp, a fish and chip shop 50 metres away and had ocean views.

We spent a bit of time here.

Alec made some new friends. We meet the Skinner family who are on a 2 year trip. You can follow they travellers here.

We even had a small markets in the park next to camp. 

Lucinda not only has a good caravan park and play ground but it also has a really cool jetty. It has the longest service jetty in the southern hemisphere. The jetty is for loading sugar and is 5.76 Kilometres long.

The sugar travels along the covered conveyor to the ship loader. It take 22 minutes to travel the length.

We had a really relaxing time in Lucinda. Alec’s Grandparents even stopped in for a night, as they made they way up to Cairns. With Alec and myself rested we are now ready the massive couple of weeks ahead.

Lesson learned of the week.

It is always wise to warm up and warm down after doing exercise, like carrying a 15 kilo Alec up a hill. I really suffered the couple days after our walk up Castle Hill. My legs and feet were really sore and tight after the walk. I actually had trouble walking.

Do you think I got any sympathy from Megan. No, she just laughed at my silly walking.