A trip to Townsville - another day another seaside town - another lagoon and water park and more beautiful weather. Every seaside town along this stretch of coast has a protected ares clear of marine stingers, which is safe to swim in and a free water park.
The Australians seem to do outside living very well and everywhere we go there are free bbqs and picnic tables for public use - these are well maintained and everyone seems to respect the space and look after it. Equally the play areas are quite inspiring - particularly the water parks - with a range of equipment. There are always amenities which, again are for the most part clean and well maintained and at the very least a cold shower available. At this water park there is an enormous bucket which fills and empties from a height every 2 minutes or so - to much excitement and whoops and screams of delight - happy, wet children all around! There are also slides, mini water cannnon and tubes and tunnels galore and we install ourselves at a picnic table in the sun and watch our girls let rip! Sadly it is shortlived as Tiegan falls over and bangs her head quite hard and time is called.
We take time out at the local mall, which is out of the sun and air conditioned, to catch up on emails and have lunch, and to give her time to recover. In the afternoon we sample the sea water lagoon which is distinctly cloudy and the girls manage to lose a pair of goggles in the murky depths while splashing around.
Our accommodation for tonight is another free camp, the journey takes us over the longest road bridge in Australia at Ayr and the girls ooh and aah and remark how they have done this in NZ and here!
We arrive in Home Hill and find we are located on a side road sandwiched between the railway line and station and the main street. Long passenger trains clatter through most of the night on their way down to Sydney stopping briefly at the little station house.The freight engines either stop and hook up another few wagons before continuing on their way or thunder through sounding their air horns as they go making us all jump. The facilities here however are second to none with a covered almost indoor bbq and seating area and hot, yes readers, HOT, FREE showers!
