For the princely sum of $3.75 pp, you can ride the Sunbus all day, hopping on and off where you please.  Seeing as it only takes 15 minutes to get to the north side of the island, you don’t spend a lot of time actually on the bus.  It runs from Nelly Bay up to […]

Today we took the ferry to Magnetic Island. We checked in to our resort apartment, overlooking the marina. We went for a walk. I wasn’t going to bore you with photos of … … but I couldn’t resist.

Continuing our theme of local military history, we headed for the Army Museum of North Queensland – only open Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, so it was now or never. Admission was free and the museum is entirely run by volunteers.  It was surprisingly good – well laid out displays with clear explanations, lots of personal […]

It was time to do some serious sightseeing.  The first place everyone visits in Townsville is Castle Hill – mainly because it completely dominates the city, kind of like a mini Gibraltar (minus the cable car).  You can walk, run or cycle up and down the steep winding road to the top (3 km), take […]

It took us right up until we hit the first traffic jam in Airlie Beach, to wish we were back in our car free slice of heaven. Ah well … we duly collected our rental car, a nice little MG which seems to drive smoothly enough, and fits into the smallest parking spaces.  The drive […]

When it comes to wilderness, Long Island is pretty tame, but it does look a little different away from the resort. Navigationally it’s not exactly challenging – we are in one of several saddles, and you can take a trail to the north, or a trail to the south.  Both climb very gently, and contour […]

So the live music finished at 10pm again, but the Zumba classes took their place and started at 7am.  We were up and about anyway, as we had a bus and a boat to catch.  The bus was late, but we arrived at Shute Harbour in good time to check in for our short crossing […]

Back in holiday mode – for Ian, it was his first flight in almost 3 years.  We’ve left Pete and Ilze holding the fort back home, and headed away for some midwinter warmth and to see some of the few parts of the Queensland coast that we haven’t been to before. After hearing weeks of […]