Townsville & Magnetic Island

Our first night in Townsville staying with Peter and Kay was a pleasure. Great food and lovely conversation. We heard about their previous guest and about their own trips to the UK. Both love live music and told us about the time they saw the Rolling Stones at the old Wembley stadium. This was the early 80's when Mick and the band were about 80 themselves I think. Our plan for Friday was house cleaning our kit of items we don't need. It usually takes about 7 days to find out the items that are dead weight. Both of us have sent items in the post to my friend in Perth that we will pick up on our way home. First to go was our sleeping bags. In this heat I sleep o'natural. It's like sauna until the early hours. Also to go was my waterproofs as any rain that comes is quick and is followed by blazing sun. We rode into the down town area and stopped into The Bicycle Pedlar shop. We had a good chat with the owners and were suprised when one of them asked "are you Phillip from England" it turns out the owners Mick and Jenny were people I had sent Warmshower requests to at the sametime I had sent them to Peter and Kay. Its a small world in the cycling fraternity. The next thing to do was to get a new tent for Angela. She has been using my tent that I bought back from the USA but I know from experience that it feels like a bit of a coffin. She bought a nice 2 man sized one which will make for more comfortable camping. The rest of the day was spent swimming, eating and feeding the local birdlife around the rock pool. I didn't know anything about Townsville before we came here but I can say that it is a fantastic town. Really clean and vibrant. On Saturday we said farewell to our hosts and took the ferry over to Magnetic Island. We did some looking around and ate at Picnic Bay before I took off to do the infamous "horseshoe" road that climbs the hills and connects bay areas on either side of the island. For the next few days we have hired a car and are driving down to Brisbane. The plan was originally to cycle there but the headwinds are at ridiculous levels. When we get there we will cycle north for 200 miles to reach Coolum Beach. This should use the SE trade wind and will make for a much better riding experience.

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I want to give a shout out to our hosts for their wonderful hospitality and also a shout for The Bicycle Pedlar shop. This is the first shop on this continent I have seen that sells proper touring bikes. If I had arrived in Townsville looking for a new bike I know for a fact I would have had the bike of my dreams from them......The Surly Long Haul Disk Trucker.....she will be mine, oh yes, she will be mine.