Townsville, Australia

We docked in Townsville on Thursday.  Townsville is around 800 miles north of Brisbane and 220 south of Cairns.  It is Australia'a largest urban center in the north of the Sunshine Coast.  Our tour today was a ride around Townsville, up to Castle Rock, and then to the Billabong Sanctuary.

We were in bus number 8.  Not so lucky for us.  Microphone did not work and on the way back, the air conditioner only blew air, not cool.

We first rode about the town and then up to Castle Rock.  There is a winding road up to the top and many local people run or walk the path for their daily exercise.  About 2 miles up hill.  Some bring their dogs while others push strollers.  A pretty fit group.

Then on to the Billabong Sanctuary.  Here they have koala bears, kangaroos, etc.  Again, if you wanted your picture holding the koala, it costs here $16.00.  We did pet one but did not hold one.  Bob did get to hold a crocodile.

After two hours of wandering about, we returned to the bus to ride back to the ship.

It was almost 2pm when we got back on the ship so we decided to eat at the pool grill.  We ordered two Philly burgers and when they finally arrived, they were not cooked properly so we only ate a bit of them.  Back to the cabin for a nap but I decided not to take a long one so I worked on my needlepoint.

We dressed for dinner.  Before dinner they had a pre dinner show for the gold, platinum and titanium guests.  It was a local show of Aboriginal Dance and Didgeridoo Performance.  Quite a talent to play a didgeridoo as you have to breath in and blow out at the same time.  It was an interesting show.

We then headed up to the Observation Lounge where we were joined by Marilyn and Bob and Cindy and Stephan.  Cindy and Stephan are the speciality act (dancers).  Cindy is from France and Stephan is from Bellarus.  They are married and have been doing this on ships for around 3 years.  We headed to the Compass Rose for dinner.  We had a nice table for 6 in the center of the room.

After dinner we went to the show.  Tonight was singer Greg Bonham.  He sings and plays the trumpet. Show was okay.  We did stay for the entire show.

Back to the suite and lights outs.