We stopped in and restocked on the way back through Ingham for some more of Lou’s Emporium Italian goodness. This time – being a respectable 10 o’clock on a Monday morning – I decided to try a coffee. Superb! Who would have thought the best coffee of the whole trip would be found in Ingham? After another shot we continued past more cane fields towards Townsville. (K – I bravely tried their “new line”, a Nutella Latte, which is basically a latte with a spoonful of Nutella mixed into the coffee before the milk is added. I was hesitant in ordering this, worried I might waste the best coffee of the trip and turn it into something wrong. Gladly I was worried about nothing and thinking ever of the Thornes back in Sorrento I sipped this very delicious brew and look forward to making it at home!)
This was an opportunity to make use the shopping opportunities afforded by a big city, which meant four hours shopping for shoes (if only the boys would stop growing), filling gas bottles, buying oil for the truck, etc; it felt like pulling teeth. We had decided to stay at a Seventh Day Adventist camp, which was low priced, but the caveat was the SDA mantra on arrival of ‘no drinking, no swearing, no smoking, no lots of things’ – I thought to myself that I must tell the kids to ease off a bit.
Collection of Far North Queensland seeds – fruits de la forêt
Townsville really is huge, at least the size of Darwin, and probably the biggest city we’ll see before Adelaide. One grizzly job I had to do here was to drop off a can of Coles diced tomatoes that contained a very chunky wine cork sized foreign body. This we had discovered a few nights earlier at Paronella Park – I am curious if Coles will have the courtesy to let me know what this very organic looking tidbit was.
View from Castle Rock.
No visit to Townsville is complete without a visit to Castle Rock, which offers majestic views over the city as well as over to Magnetic Island just off the coast. I was also able to catch up with a mate, Cam Weller, for steak and beer at a local pub.
Ross River during a sunset stroll, just behind the CP. Famous for a nasty virus
We always enjoyed our visits to Townsville…in winter time! Megan was born there and we used to love taking her and Jessica to The Strand in the cool of the evening for fish and chips on the foreshore. Christopher enjoyed the phone chat the other day, Julian.