Author Archives: dipidydoo
Magnetism
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.
The Battle of Cape Pallarenda
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 […]
Top End of Townsville
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 […]
Palms, Ponds, and Prickly Things
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 […]
The Wilder Side
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 […]
Swings and Sunsets
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 […]
Thawing Out
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 […]
Sprinting in the Sun
Yesterday we had rain, with short breaks of sun. Today we had sunshine, with short showers. This meant dry socks! The morning races were the Knockout Qualifiers (with a quarter final for the elite men). We were placed into random heats with 6-8 people per heat. The top three went through to the Semifinal; the […]
Sprinting in the Rain
This is what we came for – the first of two days of Sprint orienteering, with four races (or five in the highly unlikely event that I make it into the Knockout Final. Let’s assume that won’t be happening.) Unfortunately the weather turned overnight, and we have two days of showers ahead of us. The […]
Coastal Crawl
With another non-orienteering day, we decided to head south, aiming to get to Coolangatta, with some stops along the way. I dropped Pete and Ilze at the Skydeck and they went up to see the view. Afterwards we strolled along the Esplanade, up past Cavill Avenue. There has certainly been a lot of work done […]
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