A Little Further North

How about this for suburbia. Live on the island and ferry across, walk along the esplanade to work...

Was given the opportunity to travel to North Queensland and Townsville this past weekend and must say was wonderful to have a break. The tropics smell different and found myself on the edge of the Coral Sea with tears on my face thinking of what was and what might have been. Was a moment which I guess most of us sometimes reflect upon, a lost youth, but as we grow older inevediably we learn to appreciate what is around us each day but a little sadness over a past time is not wholly unhealthy I think.

Memory is a strange thing and I really felt it was the smell and the feel of the sun that I recollected as a small girl visiting from a distant cattle station being missing for hours along the Strand in Townsville, and this was in 1955, and had not thought of the incident in years. I was under the impression that one could go where ever, and someone would take care of you as was the case on the cattle station but no, not in a town, and eventually was taken in at a Hotel on the seafront which is still there at least the facade, I can remember the lacy front. What a rude awakening to realize the world did not revolve around moi......

The day was beautiful and met relatives that had not seen in many years.




A number of swimmers out and about within the nets to keep out the stingers, I wonder how the nets cope with the irikanji or the irikanji only in the far north. These are small deadly jellyfish which when I was young were usually found on Palm Beach near Cairns and named after the original inhabitants of the area before European settlement. The irikanji are only as big as a thumbnail.



I found the day hot and think I could use this ...pour a bucket of water on your head to cool off...good idea and I will remember this when get hot under the collar.....perhaps not such a large bucket




These guys were making hand signals as they flew past....I thought about it for a minute or two and thought why am I the only person sitting on this enormous stretch of sand...sat some more and thought do they have crocodiles in this town these days... Don't know but shifted just in case....I should have followed the plane over to where it landed on its floats and asked to be taken up...oh what a lost opportunity but was too slow as when looking through the photos I took saw a sign for flights and may well have been in this plane and would have loved to have gone up in her.





I think a lot of this boardwalk is man made.... the casino certainly is.....




These are the twins whose twenty first it was...My mother is a twin also and she was the taller of the fraternity as is Toni with Adrian.



The tropical streetscape



An eyeful of color to fly back to Brisbane in...on the return trip flew more inland. Aussies call a "red" haired person "blue" and the ocean blue is mixed up in there somewhere......hence the name, with the originator of the airline....having a bit of larrikin in him also.



I took this over Rockhampton and the mighty Fitzroy River but may not reproduce too well to make out the detail.



The wonder of flying through the air at 1000 ks per hour is so amazing.....and what else was astonishing was how low the air fares were because of the recession I imagine .

What a beautiful day and was a revelation revisiting my roots and experiencing the smiles of the friendly north Queenslanders. Not to mention new shoes with bling...sent the beeper off at the airport when forgot to take them off, and painted toenails...I really know what are priorities flu, recession and I have red toenails......oh well......