I woke up early this morning, beating my alarm clock by a matter of minutes, in order to leave the island early to maximise my time in Townsville before my bus to Cairns in the afternoon. I was confused however when waking up because the two German girls on the bunk next to me when falling asleep last night had gone, and instead these two random guys were in their place! It's probably because going to bed early last night meant I missed all the action!
After once again having toast for breakfast I checked out the hostel and walked over to the ferry terminal. When staying at hostels, some ask for a key deposit, and I hoping my hostel in Cairns doesn't ask for this as otherwise I will have some random Australian dollars before boarding my plane to New Zealand. According to the hostel there was a boat at 8.05, however upon arrival the 7.50 was just leaving and the next one was at 8.25 which was confusing! I think the fact there was a different timetable on Sundays was why they had written down the wrong time.
When finally boarding the ferry across the choppy waters, I soon arrived back on the mainland at Townsville. Before leaving the island however this guy changed the cyclone warning sign to "prepare for cyclone" which was worrying! They keep threatening cyclones though and all I've had is rain so far which is good I suppose. When disembarking the ferry I headed straight back over to Flinders Square in Townsville to get the free WiFi, managing to get the positive football result and many Facebook notifications!
After spending a while here catching up on things, I headed up to Castle Hill which is a large hill looking over the low lying city below. With a few caches installed onto my gps, I headed along roads following signs for the goat path. It was really muggy though which wasn't helped by the fact I had my backpack on me. I think the hill was something like 300m high climbing up at a rapid rate. After finding a couple of caches en route, the well defined rock steps met with a road and I followed this to the hilltop car park. Here I found another cache before hauling myself up the last few steps to the summit lookout which gave me impressive views of Townsville below, as well as Magnetic Island. I realised here as well that Townsville was actually a fair size with housing spanning right out from behind the hill.
When descending from the hill, feeling cooler air with each step, I went back to Flinders Square. Once here I took a look round the market I had passed just being set up when arriving in Townsville which sold foods and gifts primarily. I then settled down by the river with my lunch of pie and wafers which I had earlier purchased, before setting off back to the ferry terminal which is also where the greyhound buses stop. I found two caches en route, and when arriving at around 2 gave me just a half hour wait for the bus to Cairns.
The bus arrived early in the end, although it was frustrating as the driver was faffing about with making the bags look neat on the bus which meant we ended up leaving late. Shortly after leaving Townsville we swapped drivers who took us straight through to Cardwell, passing Ingham en route. It was in Cardwell we had one of our dinner breaks which was set in a nice area by the sea. There were warning signs not to swim in the sea because of crocodiles though!
Before long we set off again, getting another driver swap, although it was frustrating as there were road works along the road we were on and for large stretches only one lane was open. On more than one occasion we had to spend long periods stuck at a red light. En route to Cairns we passed through Tully which seemed like a really quirky place at the foot of the rainforest, with a big emu when entering the town, as well as a frog on wellington boot statue amongst the things on show! If that was weird, our next stop in Mission Beach had a big cassowary outside its shopping centre. The bus emptied out a bit here as well. I was tempted to stop here but apparently asides from the beach the only activities here were helicopter rides and skydives, two very expensive things.
Continuing along this winding road back onto the main road, we finally arrived into Cairns at around half 8, 15 minutes later than scheduled. Our driver was funny upon arrival like with all the way up from Cardwell making sarky comments about his weight and the air conditioning! When finally checking into the hostel at around 9, because it was just out of town, I took advantage of their free WiFi. Before long this turned into a skype session and in the blink of an eye it had gone 11. Due to the fact I had only dumped my stuff in my 6 bed dorm at Calypso backpackers, I just went straight to bed as I had a relaxing day planned for tomorrow. I was however covered in mosquito bites which was frustrating after only finding out after accidentally scratching myself!
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