Tromping Around Townsville

Phewee, the last two days have been busy, busy, busy! Yesterday, Irene dropped me, Jen and Janet off downtown so we could check out the Museum of Tropical Queensland and get ourselves booked on a reef tour. It sure took some sleuthing to find where to book our spaces on the boat out to the reef - it was cleverly hidden in a mall several blocks from the information centre where we thought it was. The weather here is still extremly wet and rainy, with occasional thunderstorms. So although we signed ourselves up for a reef excurision for today, in the end it was cancelled because of high winds out at sea. We're on a waiting list to get on Saturday's cruise, but things don't look too good for getting to see the Great Barrier Reef this trip. Ah well... it's not like we can control the weather! I may have better luck when I head to Cairns with my parents in a couple of weeks.

After we'd figured out the whole reef tour booking thing, Jen, Janet and I headed back to the museum, where we spent the rest of the day. We were really impressed with size and scope of the museum, considering it's supported by a town of less than 200,000 people. I mean really - at home, cities the size of Kitchener, Mississauga or Kingston do not have museums like this one! When we walked in the entrtance we were greeted by a full sized cutaway model of the Pandora, the ship which was sent from England to round up the mutineers from the famous Bounty. Unfortunately the Pandora was wrecked off the Great Barrier Reef in northern Queensland on her way home to England. Several expeditions to the wreck have been carried out over the years, and the museum here in Townsville has a wonderful collection of artifacts from the site. And although the cutaway model was only for the first third or so of the ship, they had the outline of the rest of the ship marked out in the carpeting in the main foyer, so you could get a good idea of how big the original was. Pretty cool!

The museum also had an interesting series of galleries on Queensland's wildlife - both terrestrial and aquatic. One section was all about corals, and included a huge variety of coral skeletons that represent the different types found out on the Great Barrier Reef. I especially liked the HUGE model of a coral polyp that dominated the exhibit. Another section introdced us to common backyard wildlife by day and by night. In the night section, you could shine a flashlight beam on various spots on the display, and if you found an animal, it would make the appropriate noise! The final gallery we explored on this level was all about the rainfortest, which makes up a significant portion of norhtern Queensland. Australia's northern rainforests have World Heritage deisgnation because of their biodiversity, and it was good to learn a little more about them.

We had time to explore one more gallery before Irene came back to pick us up. Down on the main floor we found a small gallery called "Going Troppo"... apparently this term is used up here to describe how Queenslanders go a little crazy in the tropical heat! :-) There were these crazy giant scultputres representing various characters found in Queensland - the Aussie Bloke, the Marine Scientist, the Pioneer Woman, the Army Guy, and the Seaman. Around each sculpture were interactive displays you could play with to learn how each of these types of people have contributed to Queenslander culture. It was a little strange, but highly entertaining at the same time!

After a quick dinner and change, we all headed out to the Guide Hall for the evening's fun. Like we've done elsewhere on our journey, Jen and I (with a little help from Janet this time) ran a campfire for the local Guides... and Gumnuts, and Brownies, and Trefoil Guilders, and lots of leaders. The hall was packed! Because of the continuing rain, we had to hold the campfire indoors and it was really hot and muggy. We tried to do the indoor campfire trick with floating tea lights on the surface of a bowl of water, but it kept blowing out due to the currents generated by the ceiling fan! Ha ha! We conceeded defeat eventually and finished the campfire without the fire.

After the campfire, everyone joined in to share a big "supper" (note: the Canadian translation of the Aussie word "supper" is "snack"... although with all the goodies the girls brought, it really was a whole other meal). I had a chance to talk with many of the girls and leaders, and we handed out crests, and sang even more songs on request. It was great fun and we were all completely pooped when we finally got back to Irene's house. I didn't even have the energy to read a page from my book!

Today was equally jam-packed with fun. We all slept in a little bit, and then headed off to the Billabong Sanctuary on the edge of town. This is a privately owned, award winning eco-tourism park. They have a huge variety of Australian wildlife on display, including many kangaroos, geese, ducks and little wallabies who just wander around freely - and which you can pet and feed! We bought little bags of feed at the front desk and had a grand old time feeding all the different critters.

What was especially cool about this place is that the rangers did a series of talks throughout the day about the different animals they had in their care. The day was structured so that we could follow the rangers from place to place all around the park and see ALL of the talks. We also had numerous opportunities to pet and hold various aniumals. So I petted a koala and a wombat, held a shingleback and a blue tounged lizard, wrapped a carpet python around my neck, and generally had a grand old time. We raced turtles, fed a cassowary, and chased away the magpie-geese who were being a royal pain. (Some things really don't change - the world over, geese are pests wherever you go.) Jen finally got to hold a wombat and we got some really cute pics. We also enjoyed the crocodile show, where they fed the big crocs just like we used to see on The Crocodile Hunter. Let me tell you, I was *impressed* with how far out of the water that 5-m long croc could leap! We also liked how there was a second ranger in the croc enclosure with the guy who was doing the talk - armed with a big heavy metal pole, aptly named the "croc-bashing stick". This second ranger's job was to watch the back of the first ranger. If the croc actually did take a bite at the ranger, the second ranger was to bash it on the head with the pole. If that didn't work and the croc wouldn't let go, then the second ranger was to bash the first ranger (aka victim) on his head in order to (in their words) "stop the screaming". Ha ha... fortunately, these measures were not necessary. :-)

We returned home late in the afternoon for a drink and a bit of a rest, then Irene drove us out to the Guide Shop so we could take a look around. The shop was really cute and had some wonderful memorabilia up on the walls from past girls and Guiders. Then we all decided that we'd head down to The Strand, a promenade on Townsville's waterfront, to eat dinner and enjoy the rest of the evening. We wound up at a teeny little Thai restaurant for dinner and it was delicious.

The Strand is a place we're definitely going to have to go back and explore in the daylight. It's a 2-3km long stretch of waterfront which is all set up for family use. There were wonderful playgrounds for ALL ages of kids - from preschoolers all the way up to teenagers! Yep, we found a play structure that said "teenage use only" on it. What a great idea! Jen and I also loved the "Spder", a rope climbing structure right on the beach that we just had to try out. Thumper - you'll be impressed with how high off the ground I managed to get. We're still working on a way we could bring this home to Canada with us - it was just way too cool for words. There was also a free water park and several ocean swimming areas. It's not safe to just go out and swim in the ocean here - there are "singers" (jellyfish) in the water, some of which can kill. So like many northern beach towns, Townsville has screened in sections of the ocean which are stinger free and safe to swim in. What with the weather being so hot and all, going for a dip tomorrow sounds like a good idea to me!