Arriving in Townsville around midday, having not had the time to pre-book any accommodation the night before, we decided to deviate from our usual planned approach and instead just rocked up here looking for somewhere to stay. After our first choice had informed us of no vacancies we stumbled across a previous traveller's recommendation and proceeded to check in with minimal fuss. It wasn''t however until we opened the door to our shared room that we found the problems. And believe me, things escalated from there. The hostel was very run and grimy beyond the initial reception area, the kitchen standards were appalling and to top all that off, we had three days to spend here with Townsville seeming at first glance to be a lot smaller than we had imagined!
With not much on offer here at all we wondered around aimlessly looking in shops and bars desperately trying to find something to fill our time. Whilst morale had stooped to an all time low, we did however find some consolation in having a few drinks at a brewery themed pub with some very cool interiors and a vast array of pleasurable ales. At least Jo extended here education in the art of beer drinking!
In conjunction to this we also managed to find time to visit the only thing we came here for, the Reef HQ Aquarium. A living coral reef inside an architectural masterpiece providing us with great in depth knowledge of what its like at the barrier reef without even getting wet! An absolutely fantastic Aquarium with lots of talks and things to see, a must if visiting Australia's East Coast.
Twiddling our thumbs and becoming ever more bored by what was on offer we made the conscientious decision to take the ferry to Magnetic Island. We had planned to stay on the Island for the night but thought better of it. Not sure if it was the best idea in the end as it would have probably have meant I could have justified renting one of the cool Barbie Car esc rides on offer but seen as we were only here for the majority of the day, the $90 or so didn't really seem worth it. Besides we were here to see nature, not drive around fancy looking cars weren't we.
Getting the bus to the furthest beach from the port we decided to mull around on the beach to begin with before hiking back through the hills and a visiting numerous other beaches on the way back through. It worked out to be a good plan, even if Jo and I were rather jumpy walking through the bushes not knowing what we would see. In the end we didn't see anything, no koalas, no snakes no nothing. Slightly gutted, part relieved! The scariest part of the day was probably when Jo got attacked by a Kookaburra bird whilst eating her lunch. Hilarious, it just swooped down and went for her and her pasta lunch!!!!!!! Anyway, the beaches were nice and we enjoyed an adventurous time but I wouldn't really say it was anything amazing.
Getting up for breakfast on our final day, we once again found that although breakfast was meant to be served between 8-9am, it was always all gone by 8.10am. Oh well, you learn something new each day, well, and something the same everyday in this case.....
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