High on a hill , down on a river

 Another early start , traffic noise seems to be a bit louder this morning . We had a lazy breakfast , taking our time while we decided what to do for today . We eventually got organised and headed off - first to Mt Stuart , 584 metres above sea level , there is a lookout and multiple communication towers, and takes about half an hour to get to . The drive up was interesting , after going in a kilometre or so , there was a car park for the mountain bikers - they have two tracks - either side of the bitumen road , that dip & dive from 385m down to the carpark with jumps & bumps & rocks & bridges to negotiate .        
  Don't go off the track however , as you would need a rescue helicopter to scrape you up .
On the western side of the road was a fenced area used as a live firing range for the army & airforce - on the fences were warning signs attached at regular intervals all the way up - it read " No trespassing or Shooting " - a bit hypocritical for a live firing range !!!
 We arrived at the top and were met by a male peacock wandering around - curious as there were no houses within gunshot range of the towers . There were workers halfway up one of the towers , so the loop track around the top of the mountain were closed , we could get to the lookout that overlooks Townsville and Maggie . Even better views than from Castle Hill .

  It gives you some idea of how spread out the city of Townsville is . 

 We headed back down to go for a ride on some of the many cycle tracks Townsville has to offer . The Ross River meanders its way through Townsville from the west to the east , and has cycle tracks running most of the way each side of the river . We found a quiet street to park the ute , and got the bikes off . The parks beside the river are very well looked after - they have a depot dedicated to maintaining them . We rode into the wind to start with , as we went toward the city - about 2klms later we found a bridge beside a weir , and went across and headed back to the west . The weir looks to separate the saltwater from freshwater and there was a height difference of about two metres . The freshwater is extremely clean - you can see the bottom easily !! There are some enormous trees in the parks - wider than they are tall - perfect shade trees for those hot & horrible humid days of summer .

 The track took us past both old and new houses along the way , winding its way down to the river , through groves of trees that arched over the track . There were paperbark trees that arched over the river , chairs , tables and lookout spots strategically placed to take advantage of the views . 

 We passed by another two weirs , turning back toward the city at the 2nd one , as there was a pedestrian bridge we could use . The water lilies were starting to flower , and there was a kaleidoscope of lily pads , with the very small flowers and some with bigger , normal sized flowers . 

 Crossing over the bridge , we turned back down the other side of the river to get back to the ute , and stopped down beside the 2nd weir for some photos .

 Arriving back at the ute after a 12klm ride , we stopped and sat in the shade for a while before loading up again and heading to Riverway Pools . The pools are about the size of 3 olympic pools and allow lap swimming , and plain old ordinary swimming and fooling around in other areas . We had some lunch and had a quick dip - the temperature of the water was 22 degrees - a bit brisk compared to 29 degrees air temp . 

 We hadn't realised how far across the city we had gone until we saw planes coming in to land over to our right side - the rest of the morning they had been a long way away to our left !!! It also took us a while to drive back to the RV as well . The day was done !!!

 Map Link :-https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z1G8gwwxwyYo.kaJkv6b24u2k&usp=sharing