We stopped at 150 year old Townsville for 3 nights and stayed in the CBD (Central Business District) at the Holiday Inn. It was easy to see the sights of this town on foot as there was not a huge amount to see! We strolled along the seafront (The Strand), walked around the city centre and popped into another chocolate bar (how could you not). Overall Townsville was pleasant enough but to be honest we renamed it ‘Deadsville’ which we put down to the time of year we visited (between Xmas and New Year) as most offices / shops were closed and who only knows where most of the people disappeared to!

The upside of Townsville was that we took the ferry over to Magnetic Island or ‘Maggie’ Island as the locals call it for a day trip. We hired a little topless car which was a lot of fun to drive (it felt like a go-cart!) Magnetic Island is only 32 sq miles so a day was more than enough to potter round (to think I was worried about running out of petrol!) Half of the island is a National Park so we were able to park up and follow some of the walking trails where we got to see a couple of wild Koala’s, huge Kites (birds of prey) and lots of colourful Parrots. We also saw some wild dolphins whilst crossing to the island on the passenger ferry!

Next stop is Mission Beach.

*Front page news was that Townsville is the fattest city in Austraila!