'Wherarwee' in Oz: Log 11-05 Townsville

Driving on to Bowen, we can see that the vegetation is finally changing, almost gone are the gums, to be replaced by hardier types of flora. The trees now are more like tall bushes & although there is plenty of water lying around still, the trees have little foliage. We have since been told this is due to the cyclone that ravaged the area. Townsville is a real eye opener, pop. 200,000! Very vibrant city, shopping centers every few k’s. Beautiful harbour, Ross River dam totally full, even downstream where weirs have been installed to keep water levels up, each of them is at full capacity. All along the river there are parks & picnic areas, even though we needed 4 parking spaces to stop. We had a good look around town before going to Ryan’s (son of Liz’s friend) place at Oonoombah where we are staying for a couple of nights to give us time to look around some more. Weather is around 30º by day & 18º by night. Ryan’s house is about 5 k’s out of town but it is a straight run in so easy to get around. There is a large marina adjacent to the entertainment centre & Jupiters Casino also looks out over it, all this right in the city.

Leaving Ryan we picked up fuel & food, then drove 80k’s to Big Crystal Creek campground. It’s o’cast today but it’s great to be back in the bush. Crystal Creek is an much bigger than we had imagined with a large swimming area. Liz decided to just dangle her feet but I plunged in. You can really see the devastation caused by the cyclone here with around 20% of the trees with limbs ripped off or the trees themselves snapped off about 4 mts up. I decided to go for a walk as it’s in a national park but about 1 ½ k’s out it started to rain, by the time I got back I was soaked. It rained all night & we left with it still raining.

Driving into Ingham we could see many damaged houses still waiting to be repaired & as we continued on, damage to the vegetation steadily increased. Cardwell, like one of those old southern coastal towns with the shops down one side of the road & the beach on the other, was even worse off. Arriving at Tully we could see that it had sustained the worst of the cyclone, with maybe 40% of houses damaged. But whether it was from the cyclone or lack of maintenance was hard to say. We drove on to Mission Beach which we have heard much about but to me it was a disappointment, lots of cafes & boutique shops but everything was well passed it’s prime, South Mission Beach was better. We have stopped at a little place just 3 k’s out of Mission Beach called Bingil Bay & we are right on the beach, it’s a small park with about 20 sites & only 2 toilets & 1 shower each for b’s & g’s. This afternoon, while we walked the beach, I picked up a couple of coconuts, there are thousands laying about, The 1^st one I split was too green & tasted wishy washy, the next was too old & tasted off. So we think that’s enough, we’ll stick to pineapples.

It is so nice here, just like a tropical isle with the coconut palms fringing the beach, that we have stayed another day. Our only activity is walking the beach & picking up coral that has been washed ashore. A large shark was feeding on baitfish about 20 mts off the beach for a while today, another reason not to go into the water!