Another cool night, around 4am I pulled on my 2nd blanket, but the days are beautiful. I awoke at 5:45am and listened to the radio on my headphones, the alarm went off at 6:30am. We are hiring a Barbi car today based at Nelly Bay, Maggie Island just near the main ferry terminal, so we had to catch the 8:45am ferry from Townsville to Maggie Island, which we did with about 15 minutes to spare. Last Monday, Marg had to pay full price as she left her Seniors card at camp, today I was organised, I had both our Seniors Card, so it cost $16 each return. The ferry trip was smooth and beautiful with no breeze. We arrived at Nelly Bay at approx 9:15am, and we walked over to the Car place, filled out the forms, paid $84 for the day and the lady brought around the 'Pink Barbi' car. It didn't have any doors that open just like the Starsky and Hutch mobile. It was a 4 speed manual and once I managed to squeeze myself into it, we were off like a slow pink barbi mobile.
We drove the 4 kilometers over to Picnic Bay, which used to be the hub of the island until they built a new marina and ferry terminal at Nelly Bay a couple of years ago. We bought a coffee and cake from the cafe and sat outside overlooking the water, it was just beautiful. The water was glassy with no wind. We went into the MI Artspace and brought to photos printed on canvas for $25 each, shock horror, one was of George the pelican, and the other was of Picnic Bay. We left Picnic Bay and drove all of 10kms to Horseshoe Bay, where we parked the 'Pink Barbi' mobile near the Marlin Bar. We had lunch at Horseshoe Bay and then drove back to Nelly Bay, where we handed back the car, without any new scratches or dints. We walked over to the ferry terminal and waited for the 1:35pm ferry. It arrived and left on time. After 20 minutes, we were docking at Townsville.
After another 10 minutes, we were sitting at Juliette's Gelateria eating ice cream. It was bloody YUMMA. for something completely differeent, I had 4 scoops again and Marg had 2 scoops again.

The rest of the arvo was spent relaxing. I watched a couple of episodes of Law and Order Criminal Intent, while Marg had a nanna nap.

Dinner was just a scratch meal.

Tomorrow, we plan to visit Billabong Sanctuary.

Late yesterday, the clouds came over and it was still another cool night, around 4am I pulled on my 2nd blanket, but it remained overcast all day, with 2 patches of light drizzle.
I awoke at 6:15am and listened to the radio on my headphones, Marg awoke a bit after 7am. We eventually got ourselves organised and left camp about 9:45am for the 20kms drive to Billabong Sanctuary. We arrive at 10:15am and paid $27 each with our Seniors discount. The beauty of this 'zoo' is that the birds, ducks and roos just fly and walk around the property and you can buy feed and feed them, as you will note from the photos, Marg is really into feeding the animals, she loved it and so did I. There are Wildlife talks and feeding shows on Cassowary, Wombat, Koala, Reptile, Turtle feeding, Dingo, Salt Water Croc, Free flight and Venomous Snake show. All these shows are included in the price. Marg and I attended Wombat, Koala, Reptile and Turtle feeding. We had lunch sitting beside the lake with all the animals in very close proximity. It was a top day, we both really enjoyed it.

We arrived back at camp about mid afternoon, when I managed to watch another episode of Criminal Intent, before I had to have a nanna nap. We had take away for dinner tonight, Marg had noodles from the Noodle Box, while I had a foot long from Subway. They were YUMMA.

Tomorrow, I will drop Marg at the Casino and then I will probably go riding for 2 - 3 hours until I return to pick Marg up

Another cool night, around 4am I pulled on my 2nd blanket, but it remained cloudy all day and coolish.
I awoke at 7:15am and Marg was already awake, so we watched Sunrise in bed. Marg is off to Jupiters today to get her 'pokies' fix. We left camp at 9:45am, as Jupiters doesn't open until 10am, and arrived about 10:05am. While Marg is in Jupiters I went riding. I took my bike in the tray of the mighty Navara. I rode from Jupiter's casino carpark, through the CBD of Townsville, past the V8 Supercars track, onto the shared path along Ross River to The Ring Rd bridge in Douglas. I stopped at Mocha Meccca for a coffee and then about 500 meters away, there is a small wooden bridge, where the locals feed the turtles and ducks, and believe me, there would be 50 plus turtles about the size of dinner plates and many ducks. I then headed back along the other side of the river, I stopped at the Riverway Lagoons and spoke to the Lifeguards who said it is free to use the 'pools'. Apart from the large pool, there are 2 more pools that would be more child friendly. Then continued to the CBD, where I then rode along The Strand before meeting Marg back at the carpark. She lost and I had a ball riding.

We arrived back at camp about 1pm, I watched a couple of Criminal Intent episodes, while Marg had a nanna nap. We had frozen pizza for dinner tonight.

Tomorrow, I will ride in the morning and 'play it by ear' for the arvo.

Another cool night, around 4am I pulled on my 2nd blanket, but it remained cloudy all day and coolish.
I awoke at 7:00am, while Marg slept through till after 8am, she must have been tired. I had brekky and then went riding.
I only did a lap of the Ross River bike path (30.69kms) with a coffee at Mocha Mecca. On the way back to camp on the opposite side of the river, I noticed kangaroos just relaxing, very close to houses. Check out the photos, the roos weren't fazed with the neighbour packing his truck in the background. Back at camp, I showered and then Marg and I walked over to the Castletown SC for lunch. We had hot dogs at DonutKing, they were YUMMA.

The rest of the arvo was spent relaxing, I watched more episodes of Criminal Intent and finished watching Season 6, while Marg managed a nanna nap.

Dinner was ham steaks and vegies. It was YUMMA.

Tomorrow, we will try and drive to Mt Stuart if the road is now open. We will wait and see.

Another cool night, around 2am I pulled on my 2nd blanket, but it was sunny all day.
I awoke at 7:15am, while Marg slept until 7:30am. I had brekky and then went riding.
I wanted to ride about 50kms today, so I headed to the Ross River bike path, then turned left and rode into the CBD, before riding through the Pits of the Townsville 400. I retraced my path along the bike path and stopped at Mocha Mecca for a coffee. I ended up riding 49.7kms.
Back at camp, we got ourselves organised and then drove to Mt Stuart, the road closed sign was still illuminated but the date ended on 21st June, so we drove on past. We arrived at the summit and the views were stunning. We walked around the 'walk loop' around the summit, then headed back to camp, but first port of call, was the Port. We stopped at the seafood shop and bought a kilo of prawns, then stopped at Castletown SC for some advocado and lettuce.

Dinner was Marg's world famous prawn cocktail, I did take a photo but it was blurry and the prawn cocktail has been eaten, so Marg will have to make another prawn cocktail when we get to Dicky Beach, just so I can take a photo of it. It was more than YUMMA, if that is possible.

Tomorrow is our last day in Townsville, so I will ride and spend the rest of the day packing up.

Another cool night, I had 2nd blankets on all night, but it was sunny all day.
I awoke at 6:30am, while Marg slept until 7:15am. I had brekky and then went riding.
I only wanted to ride about 30kms today, so I did a lap of the Ross River bike path, stopping at Mocha Mecca for my usual coffee. I ended up riding 30.45kms, brings my total riding distance at Townsville to 365.5km. I am more than happy with our caravan park, it is only 4 kms from the magnificent Ross river bike paths. I can ride 'my' lap of Ross River (30kms), I can include the CBD (50kms) and even add the Strand (60km), really there are heaps of choices of where to ride on safe roads and paths. Marg and I will book this park for the same 2 weeks for next year. It is so good, for us. Even though, Marg doesn't ride she definitely enjoys me riding, as I am 'out of her hair' and she does what she wants too.

After my ride, we drove to Castletown SC to do some food shopping and spent most of the afternoon packing up, I was in no hurry and it took a couple of hours. We should be able to leave about 7:30am, as we are driving over 500kms to Clermont, a bigger than normal day for us.
Dinner is macaroni cheese. YUMMA.

Tomorrow we are doing an overnighter at Clermont CP.