A relaxed day was on order for today , so we didn’t get up until 7:30 . Breakfast took a while and decisions on todays activities took even longer . I needed to fix a reversing camera on the RV - it stopped working a week ago , so it was maintenance time . Checking connections on the RV side didn’t reveal anything wrong , so I went to the ute and one of the plugs on the back .
Before long I found a wire had broken at the solder joint - I soldered it together again and strengthened it up a bit , then put it all back together again . Lyn had been busy cleaning .
We finally got organised and headed off to the city - Queens Park Botanic Gardens .
There are many trees , palms , frangipanis and specimen plants - some flowering , some finished . The rainforest section was the first part we entered and exited fairly quickly as well - we were escorted through the first section by a squadron of mosquito’s - back to the ute for some spray !!!! Even the workers at the gardens asked if we had sprayed ourselves , as the mosquito’s are pretty fierce here at the moment .
The rainforest section had a huge White Fig that had spread itself out , covering a large portion of that area . The butterflies were out in force again , but nothing like the other day at Maggie .
There was a section for Frangipanis , many types that I hadn’t seen before , with long narrow petalled flowers , then there were the usual suspects .
There had been , or was going to be some gathering / market or something , as there were marquees set up all over the place .
There were some palms that looked very ornamental , but had spikes down the edges of the fronds that were anything but friendly .
There were also other flowering plants that we hadn’t seen for a long time , or not at all !!
It was time to move on , so we headed down to Kissing Point Fort - a gun placement from World War 2 - it all looked fairly new , so may have been completed prior to Anzac Day . There were walkways to the top and steps at the other end . There was a monument to 4 soldiers who came from this , and surrounding areas - some served in WW1 and others WW2 . The were two crossed boomerangs in the middle of the monument , and the stories of the men were written on a disc in the middle on the ground .
On the top of the fort where the two guns were mounted there were many plaques telling the stories of how close the Japanese actually got during the war - they were defeated in the Battle of Coral Sea , fortunately for all of us !!! Townsville was bombed three times , but didn’t suffer any major damage . American troops were stationed here and there is a strong link between them & Australia .
We got a good view of the rockpool from the top of the fort - the water in the pool comes straight from the water in the bay , as you can tell from the colour .
It was lunch time , so we drove down the Strand and found a nice spot for lunch - in the shade on a grassy bank . Nothing else planned , we got the bikes off and rode down the Strand to Flinders St , where most of the Heritage Buildings are .
On the way down , we found something we didn’t expect to find here - more on that later .
Customs House was the first building that spread about 50m either side of the corner .
Across from it there was another impressive building , while the further we went up Flinders St , the more buildings there were - unfortunately one had been painted like a cow hide , which spoilt it somewhat , while others were a bit colourful as well . The older style hotels always look impressive.
Now as for the surprise we found , here it is .
I bet you didn’t think you’d see a waterfall in Townsville - only 100m from the beach !!! We didn’t - sad part is that we drove past it the other day , but were to busy looking at the swimming pool on the other side of the road to notice it !!!!
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