Pamula and Townsville

 The cloud forest.

 Silver Creek Falls.

 Townsville Harbour and Magnetic Island in the distance.

Castle Rock which rises 380 metres above the city.

Monday July 4^th

Woke up this morning to heavy overcast and light rain. Went to the lobby for the continental breakfast and noticed a lot of parents and young boys were wearing soccer shirts. Got talking to one of the dads and it turns out they are going to a soccer 'comp' today in town. They have driven down from Cairns to compete and will flight to Sydney tomorrow to compete in another tournament! They will leave their cars here and the moms will fly down from Cairns and drive them back (350kms). Yikes expensive trip.

I wanted to go to Magnetic Island, a short ferry ride from town, but didn't see the point in wandering around in the rain. So I thought I should be in the rainforest if it is raining. Gave me an excuse to drive some more. So I doubled back over a bit of the drive last night along the highway before the turn off and another steep climb up into the Pamula Range of mountains. This road was completed in 1930's with unemployed relief labour and took four years to complete. The road was very narrow and climbed up into the clouds. When I got to Pamula I found a few houses and a cafe and retreat but no town as advertised. Anyway it was a lovely drive and I went for a short walk in the rain to a lookout that was supposed to lookout over the islands and the sea but was totally clouded in.

Then I retraced my route back to Townsville and decided to check out the waterfront. As I drove into town I found a road that went up a big rock formation called Castle Rock right in the middle of town. The rain had stopped and the view was panoramic of town, the beach, the harbour, and Magnetic Island shrouded in clouds. When I descended I drove along the waterfront which was very attractive. I was going to stop and have lunch but when I punched in my next destination in the GPS it told me I still had three and a half hours to go so I decided to make tracks.

The drive was easy with little traffic and passed through many sugar cane fields and along the coast. I arrived at Airlie Beach just at dusk I knew it was going to be a major tourist town because of the cruises that leave from here but I wasn't prepared for just how big. The harbour had hundreds of big expensive private power and sailboats in it. The town itself consists of restaurants, shops, tour booking companies, hotels, motels and backpacker hostels. It's a busy place.

I found my hostel for the night and then found the booking office of the boat I am sailing on and checked in and got the boarding pass. Then I found a restaurant for dinner and a beer before heading to my four person room to update the blog and get some sleep.

Tomorrow I sail for three days and nights and will be out of touch. Cheers.