The Strand Motel Townsville

... so we had to take it to garage, as we were booking it in at the one the hire company had said, they rang and asked us to take it too a different one. So we headed across Townsville to another garage and left the van for the afternoon.

We caught the bus to the center of Townsville and after a spot of lunch, when to Reef HQ, a big aquarium.

It was a pretty cool aquarium complete with glass tunnel, ship wreck, sharks, sea horses, loads of fish, sea snakes (mum ...

... walk took us around the town and towards the area around the seafront, In the marina we saw the "red Baron" biplane seaplane (the only 2 passenger, open cockpit, biplane on floats in the world - I think there are more than enough provisos to ensure that this is true!) that Catherine Zeta Jones flew in in a movie that nobody can ever remember seeeing. The seafront walkway, The Strand, was really lovely and as evening came on was full of people of ...

... enmass and eat on the beach. It has such a lovely atmosphere. We are staying in a place called Bungalow Bay Koala Village and as the name suggests it is right in the middle of a Koala Sanctuary in the middle of the forest. We went to the fringe reef yesterday and went on a reef walk which was amazing. We then grabbed a shower and as we stepped outside a bird pooed on Emma's head!!! We are staying in little cabins which are all eco-friendly and water ...

... go sea kayaking around Horseshoe bay. Met up with Steve from Sheffield, who was the kayaking guy. He had rather an enormous belly and didn’t look like he would fit into a kayak and also a very irritating way of speaking, which got more annoying as the morning progressed. (Ironically he was teasing Paul about his fitness levels and Paul looked like Brad Pitt in his rash vest in comparison to Steve!) There was one other person joining us on our trip ...

... who the sam decided to put that there off a sheer cliff !!!!







The day was almost cloudless and clear...The views were pretty damned good







The island is Magnetic Island in the distance















Townsville, Queensland, Australia dinziez

... at the hotel where we had a nightcap. Not only was he a really good player but he was an okay singer and even took requestsso we had a good old sing along. The Reef Hotel had just been refurbed so our room was really nice and we had a wonderful view over the Coral Sea and, of course, the very low tide. A tip for the unwary if you are planning to stay here – check the tide before you make the booking, and pay the extra money for a room with an ocean view. All you will ...

... die **ste, die aufgestanden ist. Seit dem ich einige Zeit bei Logan v**bracht habe, ist 7Uhr meine Aufstehzeit und ich bin auch nicht mehr müde. Danach segelten wir dann zurück. Trotz extrem niedrig** Windstärke sind wir gesegelt, wir hatten einfach zu viel Zeit. Dann fuhren wir sogar eine Regatta mit einem and**en Schiff namens Boom**ang und v**loren diese, haha. Ab**, und jetzt kommts: Wir haben Wale gesehen! Und zwar ziemlich nah. Also ich habe nicht nur das Sprühen gesehen ...

... Or at least we could but we couldn't leave it overnight outside our classy accomodation at Base backpackers. So we ended up driving off in a pink topless daihatsu!

We checked in at Base near Nelly Bay and were shown into our very own hut on the beach, with direct views over the water. We then headed off in car #1 down to the golf course for 9 holes. It had been a while since Luce had picked up a stick and needless ...

... br>


Some of the flora & fauna around us was also spectacular, check out these tree ferns!





The clouds above us started getting darker, so we upped the pace a bit!



Townsville, Australia al_fey

... br>night as it was mega expensive (compared to what we were used to) but
managed to eat fish and chips on friday! Yay!


The next day we transferred back to Cairns again, and sorted out
our snorkelling expreience! We got a boat, equiptment, 2 dives, lunch
and free wine( shame neither of us like wine!!) for around 30 pounds.
Pretty good considering we saw Nemo!! (haha, i found him, well, a whole
family of nemos) We also spotted a ...