Townsville

We left Tully, sore, but rewarded and drove towards Townsville, stopping at the recommended "Frosty Mango" shop where we enjoyed Mango, Rum and Raisin icecreams etc and purchased some ripe pineapples.  We have been seeing Mango Trees growing for weeks, but that was the first time we had tasted it - the season is over - wait until summer !

We arrived in Townsville and stayed at the Coral Coast vanpark outside of the town. Castle Hill lookout overlooked the whole town - a  Hill , as only 286 metres high, not high enough to be called a mountain !
We enjoyed a picnic lunch at Rowes Bay overlooking Magnetic Island and chatted with the owner of a coal mine in Emerald en route to a Conference at the Casino.

We met up with George Karsai, another member of our City Slickers van club from Sydney, attached to the Army there for a little while, we invited him around for "Happy Hour" and next day he took us for a drive around Townsville - via the Strand and the Casino , promising take us for dinner at the local Chinese that night - his wife , Sonja, was in Sydney and would be home the next day.

Dick and Gloria's son in law, Bob, has a brother living in Townsville, so we were invited for lunch at his home on Sunday.  We met his partner, Sasha, and daughters, Ruby and Jade.  As they both work at the local Aquarium, they arranged for us to have free entry for the next day, which we enjoyed.  We met up with Sonja at her caravan and then that evening had dinner at Sizzlers with them and chatted for hours.