We spent the day in Townsville and were really surprised at what a nice town it was. I know there is rivalry between Cairns and Townsville and Cairns people believe it is so much prettier but my unbiased vote is for Townsville. We visited the Townsville museum which was actually really nice and gave us something to do. Unlike the rest of the tourists we did not go to Magnetic Island, which we do regret, but we decided to save some cash and since we were definitely going to go to Frazer Island we figured we didn’t need to go to every Island.

Townsville Jungle Gym

Then we drove down to Bowen, where we had trouble finding a campsite since they were either full or no one answered at reception. At least there were a lot there so we found one that was open but it was the oddest campsite we had been to. It was full of travellers who were fruit picking and huge groups of them were sleeping in tents and under tarps, so it wasn’t the cleanest campsite we stayed at nor was it too cheap.

We went grocery shopping which was quite handy in the van because instead of having to unload groceries from a car to the house we just moved them from the cart into our “house.” I loved having a fridge and kitchen in the vehicle, because it was so convenient. If we were hungry we’d just pull over and make lunch. That’s probably the only thing that was handy on the van though.

It was only south from here and we left Cairns to go south to Townsville. On the way we passed a billboard for Paronella Park and decided to go since I had seen brochures for it and it seemed nice. It was a bit out of the way and on the old road to Townsville and overpriced, like everything touristy I have found out, but it was a nice detour. It’s basically an old villa and gardens, which have unfortunately seen a fire and a few floods and the owners don’t plan on rebuilding, which I think they should.

Paronella Park

Cane Train and sugar cane

Then we passed through acres and acres of sugar cane and saw lots of cane trains on the rest of our journey to Townsville. We had found a campsite in the brochure but without a proper map we got a bit lost and it was a mess because when we called the campsite I think they also didn’t know where they were located and we spent a good 2 hours driving around the outskirts of Townsville.

I was in a mall parking lot, turning around when a lemon of a car drove by me with a heavy-set woman in it who stuck up her middle finger and yelled obscenities. I felt right at home, as if I was back in Philly. In Philly this is a normal everyday occurrence and on a journey to and from the city this happens at least once for sure and sometimes even three or four times. That’s when it hit me that this was the first and turns out only person that had road rage towards me, and believe me there were countless times people could have had road rage with me driving the bus, and this wasn’t even one of those occasions. I realized there is no way I would want to drive the van anywhere near Philadelphia, because I couldn’t even imagine the abuse I’d get, but here, at best when I was driving my worst I may have gotten a beep.

After the fiasco of driving then turning around four or five times we decided we had it with Townsville and would move on. As we were leaving the city, what did we see? The entrance to the campsite we were looking for all along. We could have strangled ourselves and the teenagers behind the desk since their directions were for a wild goose chase.