Townsville

Reef HQ

Turtle Hospital

Water Park

View from Castle Hill

We headed into the city centre where we thought we would check out the 'award winning Sunday market' in Flinders Street. I am not sure what award it won but we did manage to buy some cheap bananas and were grossed out by the ornamental stuffed cane toads. We searched for the Info centre but decided it must have moved because they were renovating the main square. We went back to the car and headed across to The Strand which is the 2.2km, palm studded waterfront promenade. Today was actually the Townsville Running Festival and the marathon finished on the waterfront. We watched some of the last runners come through and decided to go to the Reef HQ Aquarium. The highlight was visiting the newly established Turtle Hospital where they rehabilitate injured and sick turtles brought in by fisheries rangers. There were 5 green sea turtles we were able to view up close. Six of the seven marine turtle species occur in Australian waters including the green, flat back, hawksbill, loggerhead, leatherback and olive ridley. The most common in the Townsville region is the green turtle which is quite different to the other species as it mainly feeds on sea weed and sea grasses. In recent times there has been an increase in the number of sick turtles which they have attributed to the recent floods destroying their main food sources. We walked back to the info centre and organised ferry tickets and accommodation to go across to Magnetic Island. We had a bite to eat with the sound of the brick saw close by and headed back to The Strand. The kids got their bathers on and had a play at the water park. It was a little overcast and the wind had picked up so they didn't last too long before turning blue. We went for a drive up Castle Hill for a view of the city and it's surrounds. Following that we did some grocery shopping and went back to the van. I made spaghetti bolignase for dinner.