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We drove from Airlie Beach to Townsville where we had planned to stay at Black River Stadium Caravan Park. This is an over 50's park about 23 minutes outside of Townsville, we didn't know what to expect here and we did turn around to go to another park at one stage but then decided to continue on to this park and we were both very happy that we did. This is a large grassed area park around what was once used as a rodeo stadium and is sometimes rented out for special events. There is heaps of room for the vans and the managers try to space us with a gap in between. The service on entering the park was excellent, very friendly, the rates are great. The amenities here are new and well maintained, we have power and water and there is a dump point. Every afternoon at 4.30pm they ring the bell and if you want you can meet in the camp kitchen for happy hour.
We set up and then we drove around to our friends house in Townsville for a long awaited catch up, last time we were here was three or four years ago so it was great to be able to spend a bit of time with Del and Ian. We stayed longer here than intended and didn't get back to the van until about 6.30pm. I had planned to cook a silverside for dinner so I put that on straight away and then prepared the vegetables we were having with it and also the white sauce. We didn't eat until late and then I wasn't long out of bed after that because we are always tired on our travelling days.
We were a bit slow moving the next morning but we didn't have a busy day ahead of us, we were meeting Del and Ian for lunch and we still had plenty of time so we drove into town to the Information Centre to see about booking the ferry to Magnetic Island tomorrow. I had already phoned the car hire companies on the island and found out all their small vehicles had been hired out for the day so we booked our tickets on the ferry and a full day bus ticket, the buses work like Hop on Hop off buses where you can get on and off as many times as you want in the day. When we had all the information we needed we drove to the Strand on the waterfront where we were to meet our friends. We were a bit early so we walked around this most beautiful area where there is a large pool area meeting up with the ocean, hopefully we can get back here on Saturday for a swim. We walked back to the restaurant and it wasn't long we were waiting until our friends arrived. We went into the restaurant and found a table. I ordered our meals and drinks and we sat down for a pleasant chat. We left here and then Robb and I drove to the shops to get some fuel and pick up a few grocery items we needed, then we drove on home. Del and Ian were coming back to have a look at our van and after they arrived we sat around talking for a couple of hours. After they had left Robb and I walked over the the camp kitchen to join in on happy hour, we met up with a few people there but we were both really keen to get back and have a bit of quiet time before dinner. It was a stunning sunset tonight so I had to take a couple of photos.
Today we are catching a ferry to go over to Magnetic Island which is off the coast of Townsville, we found out talking to people on the trip that it is actually a suburb of Townsville. I read the population is 2,500 but we didn't really know what to to expect in the way of infrastructure over there. It was very much a suburb with lots of housing and good facilities in the way of shops and services, we saw a bowls club and there were quite a few cafes. We wanted to hire a car to get around for the time we were there but unfortunately it was a very busy weekend so we had to settle for a ticket on the hop on hop off bus. We arrived a little bit late to catch the 10.30 ferry so we had to wait for another hour and a half for the next one and then when we arrived on Magnetic Island the next bus was another hour and a half away so we found a cafe and had lunch while we waited. We hopped on the bus that was going to Honeymoon Bay which we think apart from where the ferry lands has the most selection of shops. We walked down the beach and then back up the shops, there were a lot of people around and it was a beautiful day. We stopped for an ice cream from the ice cream shop and sat and waited for the bus, we had just enough time to eat them before it arrived. We stayed on the bus until it took us to Picnic Bay where there was an hotel so after walking down the jetty we sat and had a beer waiting for the next bus which took us back to the ferry terminal and met up with the ferry that we hopped on to return to Townsville. We called in to Del and Ian's on the way home to catch up with Del's son Todd and his three children who we hadn't seen since we were last here, we stayed there for a while chatting and then we had to say good bye to everyone because we were going to have a quiet day tomorrow before moving on the next day.
We just wanted an easy day today because we hadn't had much down time since leaving home and we were both feeling it a bit. We took a drive down to The Strand in the morning and drove up and down having a bit of a look around. This is a beautiful area on the bay where you will find a large water park, a couple of swimming pools, parkland and a marina. We found a cafe opposite the marina and we stopped here for a coffee before driving onto our next destination. We wanted to visit the historic Tea House at Hervey Range, this is an area that is very popular with the locals and as it turned out they had a sign out the front to say they were completely booked out. Robb loves a Devonshire Tea and I was hoping he could have one here for lunch but not to be, we will find somewhere on our travels. We drove home from here and had lunch there. We just sat around for the remainder of the day, neither of us felt like doing any more than this. We are moving on tomorrow to Cairns, it doesn't take us long to pack up so we didn't worry about doing anything in the afternoon.
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