TOWNSVILLE!

We headed to a free camp 30km North of Townsville but we were a bit late in the afternoon and it was full so we backtracked a couple of k's and stopped at a caravan park before heading into Townsville and the beach.

We weren't 100% happy with the caravan park that we were at, so we drove around checking out some of the other parks. Being school holidays a lot were full or just too expensive, then we spotted a Big 4 just North of Townsville, Brad managed to get us a really good deal for a week. 

The CP had a jumping pillow so the kids were stoked and headed straight over to it, where they made some new friends with a lovely family that are also travelling Australia. The kids spent as much time as possible together for the rest of the week. 

The next day the kids were keen to go back to the beach and to try out the water park that they had spotted on the strand. Lucy really surprised me by getting straight into the water and had a great time trying to body surf the waves. Chloe went in the water happily until a bit of something touched her foot and she screamed her head off thinking that a crab was biting her foot, I think it will be awhile before she gets back in the ocean! Then we went further up the strand to the water park, which was absolutely freezing! The kids had a quick play here before it got too cold for them.

Castle Hill was the next stop for the day, where we discovered that Chloe could possibly be part mountain goat. She had a ball running up and down the different tracks at the top of the hill, and I spent most of the time telling her to slow down!

The next day we went to Bushland Beach only a couple of km's away. It was low tide when we got there so we thought it would be fun to walk with the kids out to the waters edge. BAD IDEA!!!! Lucy said she didn't want to go but we thought she was just being lazy so said come on you'll be right! We got about half way out and she freaked out in a huge way. Turns out she is petrified of crabs, sea snails and any other small creature lurking on the sand during low tide. Brad and I ended up piggy backing them both back to the shore - not much fun! The rest of the day was spent back at the caravan park playing with the neighbours kids.

After lunch the next day we went to Pallaranda Beach, purely to play in the sand as neither one of our kids would go in the water both of them now scared of the crabs. 

Lucy and her mermaid

The kids begged to go back to the water park so we went there and of course neither of them would go in because it was so cold, until we spotted the kids we met at the caravan park then Chloe was off running around with them for awhile.

The next couple of days were just spent doing not much at all, just hanging around the caravan park. We did go back to Bushland Beach while the tide was a bit higher, it did get low quite quickly but we had packed the kids 'wet' shoes so Lucy bravely walked out during low tide safe with her shoes on!

A bit more time spent on not doing too much at all, a few bikes rides, lots of jumping on the jumping pillow and a trip into the markets and before we knew it our time at Townsville was up. After a week of staying in the 1 spot Brad and I were more than ready to keep moving. The kids were up and ready early on our last day to get as much play time in with their friends before it was time to go. Brad drove the bus around to the jumping pillow to pick them up and they all went and hid on us! We finally coaxed our kids into the bus with their friends waving and chasing us up the road we headed further North. Hopefully we will catch up with this lovely family again soon!

We all really enjoyed Townsville, probably because the weather was just perfect! The strand is a great place to relax for the day, with plenty of different playgrounds and beaches so while there is lots of people there it didn't feel crowded. Castle Hill has the most amazing views of Townsville in all directions. The Big 4 Woodlands was a great park with really wide sites. 

Brad lived in Townsville for a few years and he couldn't believe at how much it has changed and grown, until we realised it has been 17 years since he lived here! 

Thanks Townsville for a great week we will definitely be back!