From Townsville

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore: it's over 25 degrees out, and humid, but there's a bit of a breeze, so you put your sweater on.

Mission Beach was gorgeous. That word isn't good enough, but it will have to do. We stayed at the Beach Shack, a fun, friendly hostel just across the road from the beach. Somehow, I got myself out of bed before 6am and headed along the beach/rainforest/mangrove walk with my binoculars and camera. Saw a nice variety of birds, many of which I was able to identify over breakfast, and many of which will remain a mystery forever. A kookaburra flew down and posed on a branch right ahead of me, and a wallaby made a very brief appearnce as well.

Ching and I wanted to do the nice 8km bushwalk through the rainforest area where you're most likely to see a cassowary, but without a car it just wasn't going to happen. So we did a nice little bushwalk up the road from the Beach Shack, and saw a goana (big lizard), and apparently there were a couple of cassowaries in the area, but we missed seeing them. We walked back along the beaches. The town was so wonderfully laid back and just really, really pretty. It was like staring at a postcard with the ocean, beach, and a row of palm trees leaning in the breeze. I didn't quite believe I was there.

We decided to try out the pool table when we got back to the hostel. We probably set a record for the longest game ever where people were actually trying to win. There was a kid there who I swear is actually Ian Feenstra's double. It was scary. He was from Ottawa. But even cooler was meeting Jill, who just graduated from Criminal Justice and Public Policy at the University of Guelph. She's actually from Brampton and was completely shocked to run into the two of us. The world got really small for a minute.

In order to avoid missing a day in Townsville, Ching and I took the 8:05pm bus out of Mission Beach. It was late. We ended getting to Townsville at about midnight. We slept well. Yesterday was pretty lazy. We walked along The Strand, a path along the coast, and then swam in the Rock Pool, which is ocean water but stinger free. A couple of the beaches had stinger nets, but we just wanted to float and recover and it was a pretty windy day. It was wonderful to just float and soak in the sun after a few days of crazy activity. We didn't make it to Wooly's (the supermarket Woolworth's) before it closed, so we went out to The Brewery for dinner and to try their beers. James would be proud. They have an excellently priced sampler tray with all 6 of their regular microbrews, plus one extra that's on tap at the time. All were decent, but there's a reason the Irish stout was ranked 3rd in the world. It was a bit warm by the time we got to it and it still blew me away. (I can see James now, going to that beer advocate site and reading about what we tried. The extra was a Belgian Blonde before you ask)

Today we went to Billabong Sanctuary. If you are ever in the Townsville area, go here! It's more than worth the price of admission. We got to hold and take pictures with a wallaby named Willamina, a koala named Bonza, a red-tailed black cockatoo named Shadow, a blue-tongued skink, a water python and another python that I can't remember right now, but it's closely related to the black-headed and lives inland. There are other parks where you can have your photo taken with a koala. For $15. After already paying admission. This place was good. And it was well run and well taken care of. We got to see crocodiles being fed as well. They leapt out of the water in a very impressive display of their abilities.

My photo CD has finished burning and we're hoping to somehow fit in the Museum and the climb up Castle Hill before dinner tonight. We're going to the goldrush outback town of Charters Towers tomorrow and then to Magnetic Island off the coast of Townsville before going to Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays.