Arrived in Townsville - and a Plague of Frogs

Jen, Janet and I touched down here in Townsville around 4:30 yesterday afternoon (that's 5:30pm Melbourne time; I'd forgotten that Queensland doesn't go on Daylight Savings Time) and we were met at the airport by Irene, our host/new friend here. Gotta love that Girl Guide trefoil! Irene wore a Guiding shirt to the airport and we had no problems spotting her at all! After collecting our luggage (which was a little bit soggy, thanks to the ongoing rain both in Brisbane, where we changed plans, and in Tonwsville), we headed back to her house.

Irene is a long-time Guider and it really shows in her house. I was browsing her bookshelves and she has the most wonderful collection of old Guiding and Scouting books, many written by Lord Baden-Powell himself. She also runs the local Guide store and has promised to take us there at some point this week. (Excellent.) She has an old corgie dog named Rowlie and a cockateil named George, and a HUGE Winne-The-Pooh stuffed bear that her daughter won in a contest! The Pooh bear comfortably sits in the largest chair in her living room.

I love Irene's back yard. She has a mango tree from which she collects the fruit every year and a lovely garden too. We went out after dark with a torch to look for cane toads... apparently they're usually everywhere here but not last night! We did, however, find many green tree frogs, which are larger than our grey tree frogs by quite a bit! They were easy to catch and were quite happy to sit on my arm or hand for a while, so we snapped some cute pictures. At one point, one of the frogs leapt off my shoulder - and straight into Jen's face! Give her marks, folks - there was no screeching or screaming, but she did have to gently peel the unexpected frog off her nose/cheek/eyeball while the rest of us doubled over laughing. The frog didn't seem to mind all the attention, and Jen dealt with the whole thing with good grace. Ha ha!

Today we're heading into town to find out about charters out to the Reef. The weather this week isn't supposed to be all that good, so keep your fingers crossed for us!