Townsville

Left Airlie Beach quite early for the 260km drive to Townsville. Thought we'd stop for brunch on the way and unfortunately stopped at a place called Ayr. Ayr is an awful place, worse than Brisbane and the brunch was equally bad. Made me a bit apprehensive about what we would find in Townsville, but we have been pleasantly surprised.

Had booked a couple of days in Townsville to break the journey. The weather has been getting increasingly overcast on the way here, but it is still very hot and humid. Spent the first afternoon exploring the strand, Townsville's promenade, which is full of water parks, pools and fountains. Also quite a few restaurants and coffee bars, very nice area. 

Then went back to the hotel and spent a while by the pool, which is really pretty and set out as an oasis.

Day 2:

Andy has been worrying me about Ross River Virus, which is unique to this area and similar to Dengue fever (bad flu). No signs of it yet though!

Spent a couple of hours at Reef HQ this morning. Enjoyed it very much. Reef HQ has the largest aquarium based reef in the world, and large tanks of reef fish including sharks, rays and all the colourful reef fish. 

It also has a turtle hospital where sick turtles are brought to get them better and hopefully released back into the ocean. Turtles suffer from gut problems often from eating plastics which pollute the sea. Turtles mistake things such as plastic carrier bags for jellyfish, which they try to eat and then get into trouble.

This turtle is being treated in shallow water as it had floating syndrome which stops it being able to dive for food.

The tropical storm hasn't materialised yet and is now forecast for tomorrow afternoon. We are going to set off early tomorrow and make a dash for Cairns. We hope to get there before the cyclone hits, but understand that Cairns is expecting many cms of rain over the next few days. If so, we may not get to see the barrier reef which will be disappointing. We'll have to see what happens.