Winter 2014

The road works on Townsville’s outskirts leave Gabbi Garmin, Google maps and us in a spin. Old roads have somehow disappeared and new ones have been recently built. Just when we manage to find our way to the city centre the road is closed because of an ‘event’ and there is no detour. We head towards The Strand (the waterfront drive) and discover that this is where the ‘event’ is taking place and we and the van are in the middle of a surf carnival and speed boat races. Every man and his dog is wandering across The Strand licking ice creams as we hold our breath and try to trundle on through. It is a magnificent day and the sea is sparkling. There are lawns and palms and people on folding chairs and some silly old folks in a caravan slap bang in the middle.

We find a park in the CBD and have a walk through the Sunday market, buy some fresh tropical fruit and check out the marina before repeating the whole process to get ourselves back out of town.