Let's all go to the Billabong and eat Tim Tams

Townsville, what kind of name is that?  It's kind of like saying jet plane or mobile cellular phone ??  It's somewhat repetitious but don't fret.   It was named after a fellow named Towns and you can't very well call it Townstown, can you?

Townsville from the port with Castle Hill in background

 Anyway, it is Saturday, March 9th, and this is where we are today.   Townsville is in north Queensland up the coast going north out of Sydney.  Australia is one of those countries where the population is most densely packed around the coast.  Inner Australia is not, for the most part, where the people live, especially in the west.  Other than Perth, most of the folks reside on the east coast side.  Today we got in about 8:00 am.  They seem to do most of the docking on the starboard side of the ship.   Now for you land lubbers that is the right side of the ship as you face the bow which is the front.   Do I have to explain everything!!? Mine and Vialula's little piece of the ship is on the port side so we go up a couple of decks and watch them as they make us fast.   They attach rope after rope to the shore anchors to be sure we stay attached where we are supposed to be.  I found out that each rope, which is big and heavy has 90 tons of capacity.  WOW.  They put out no fewer than 5 in the front and 5 in back.  And this is in calm, protected water with no waves or swells, etc.   90 tons of holding power per rope.

In most of the bigger ports, you can see container after container that is just sitting there waiting for us.  The fork lifts get busy, and pallet after pallet of supplies come aboard to replenish our stores.   It is amazing.   Did I tell you about the fuel?   In a ship's log of the first segment of our trip we had covered 10,761 miles, and we used 501,923 gallons of fuel.   That is staggering to me.   I need to do a posting where I show you some pictures of the ship and fill you up with a ton of figures of what we have done or used or go thru.   It is amazing.   I will try to do that soon.

But anyway, we are in Townsville, like I said.  We have a tour today but it isn't until the afternoon so Vialula and I head on down to the town, which isn't that big.  It is about 160,000 people.   A quaint town with industry and hospitality.  The waterfront is called "the strand", and it is about 2.2 kilometers long.   Vi and I went on down to the local Woolworth's to get ourselves some supplies.  Now most of you probably remember Woolworth's in the states.   I don't really know if they still exist at home but they are all over Australia.   And here they are grocery stores as well as the five and dime we used to remember.  We have been hearing all about these things called "Tim Tams" but did not know what they were so we see them in the store and got three different ones.  They are described as chocolate biscuits.   In other words they are the local cookie of choice but the people swear by them.   I just opened our first package as I am writing this.   It has chocolate and caramel around a wafer and as I just had my very first one about 5 seconds ago, I will tell you it is very good but nothing to write home about so I will stop doing that!

So we toured the downtown area and went up and down "the Strand", and then headed back to the boat to get ready for our tour.  It is the Billabong Sanctuary.   Ok, test time.....What is a billabong in Aussie land??

Oh wait,  back up.   Vialula just finished her first Tim Tam, and she is hooked on em so maybe they are worth writing home about.   I'll let her do that.

Answer: Billabongs are areas where a river or water path has changed course and so the area sometimes fills with flood waters or rains but is also dry most of the year.   It us usually low lying areas, marshy in nature but not always wet.   Wildlife tend to thrive in these area.   We are going to a wildlife sanctuary in the billabong.  More roos and koalas so Vialula is ecstatic about going.   This particular one also has crocodiles, snakes, cassowaries, emus, birds by the flocks and much more.  Vi will load up some pictures but LeRoy got to hold a nice python, small 2 year old croc, and I scratched a wombat, a koala bear and a kangaroo or two. 

That's not a croc ...

... that's a croc!

Koalas are cute and fuzzy but they aren't worth much more than that.   They sleep up to 20 hours a day because their diet is so poor.   They eat only the leaves of the eucalyptus tree.  That's it.   And the leaves have an oil in them that is basically poisonous.   As a baby they are adapted to accept the poisonous oil by their mothers in the form of wiping the mothers poop all over the mouth of the baby and she licks it off and becomes somewhat immune to it.   Makes no sense.   It even puzzles the experts as to why.  So they sit in their trees and sleep away their lives.

On next to the wombat.   Another marsupial that is a burrower.   They are a strange little creature.  They tend to travel on very strict pathways, and if something should get in their way they just bump into it.   I am not yet sure of their use or importance yet either but you can look them up should you be interested.   They do have a very hard plate on the top of their backs near their tails that they use as a defense when down in the burrows and the dingoes try to get them.  They basically just block the hole with that plate, and the dingo cannot do anything about it.




On next to the croc show.   Now this was a big boy.  I doubt the pictures will do it justice but I just figured out that I don't want to go up to one and pet it.   They are prehistoric eating machines.   The one I saw was about 1000 kilograms and about 13 feet long.   The biggest one on record was 29 foot 4 inches.   Now that is a first down every time you give it the ball.   You try and tackle that thing.  A woman killed it back when it was not illegal to do so.

Oh wait, not that big boy ... Vi is just jokin' around!

This was one big crocodile!

Their eyes and nose are on the top of their heads!

 

Emus!

Goana!

Kangaroo!

We enjoyed the Sanctuary and pretty soon it was time to get on the bus.   On the way back we were taken to Castle Hill on a one lane road.  Cars have to get over on one side to allow the oncoming bus or car to pass.  There is also a "goat track" that is comprised of 1,300 steps, a popular choice for fitness buffs here.  We'll stick with the bus!   In Aussie land, a hill has to be X amount tall to get called a mountain, and Castle Hill is 8 meters short of what it needs so it is called a hill.   The Aussies are very plain and simple of what they call things.   Anyway, it is a tall lookout right along the coast, and the sights were breathtaking.  A 360 degree view of the entire Townsville area can be seen from atop this hill. 

Overlooking the port - our ship is in the middle there.  See it?

I know we are only seeing the best of every place we go but it sure does seem that New Zealand and Australia are very livable places.   We have yet to meet anyone who is anything but nice, laid back, generous and genuinely happy.  Here's a toast to our new mates!