CAMPSITE # 162 - Townsville, QLD

A visit from my oldest brother James was over quicker than it started. We were to journey to Townsville and drop him off at the airport. The two hour drive from Mission Beach to Townsville made us desperate to stop in at Caldwell for one of their famous roadside pies. I had one of the best pies in the history of my pie eating career, a good old favourite Beef & Mushroom pie, Tommy loved his Beef & Bacon pie but James unfortunately was quite disappointed with his Beef, Tomato & Cheese. When the staff love their pies, you know they're good...

Arriving into Townsville, I was blown away by how much bigger it was than I had expected. But it is infact Australia's largest city north of the Sunshine Coast and is considered to be the unofficial  capital of Northern Queensland.

It seemed to me that "The Strand" was the place to be. A lovely beachfront parkland with street cafes, a man made lagoon and some rather funky art installations. 







And thank goodness for the man made lagoon with all of the deadly creatures lurking around. During the summer, you'd be busy dodging one of the world's most deadly jellyfish that is smaller than the size of your fingernail. Symptoms of an Irukandji sting include nausea, vomiting, cramps, high blood pressure, chronic back ache and acute anxiety. The venom is slow-acting and severe symptoms surface only after a few minutes of the attack. There is no known antidote, even morphine has been known not to subdue the pain.

We, however, had an even bigger reason not to swim in the ocean...

A visit to the Watermark on the Esplanade was high on our priority list, Tom's brother Will worked at the Watermark a few years back... it gave us a great excuse to have a few beers!!

Love this photo, we see it all too often...

Tom had an old friend from work who lived in Townsville so we planned to meet up with Kristian and his family for a meal. WOW! Tom and I were allowed to be sophisticated for one night, we were wearing the only good clothes we had. We went out for Thai, oh how I missed the taste of food cooked by somebody else! It was just delicious. We had a great night catching up and after a few beverages decided it sounded like a great idea to meet them all at 7am the next morning for a 2 hour walk up one of Townsville's highest peaks, Castle Hill. 


As we were driving towards Castle Hill at 6:45am the next morning, both sporting a couple of sore heads, I dreaded the path ahead. I pictured hundreds of steep steps each one hurting more than the last. As we waiting at the bottom of a disgustingly daunting looking staircase, our friends arrived with some really pleasant news. They did the steps the day before and were still a little sore so they thought they'd just go up the road instead. I couldn't have thanked my lucky stars anymore that day, a few strides up the road with a pleasant view overlooking the whole of Townsville was like a walk in the park in comparison.

Site : Rowes Bay Caravan Park
Rating : 11 / 20
Facilities : Nice swimming pool, decent campkitchen, very clean & modern bathrooms, across the road from the ocean, 30 minute seaside walk to the city centre.