QLD - Mission Beach to Townsville

After Mission Beach we drove to Murray Falls where we had some brekkie at one of the picnic tables before Marc braved the river water and did some rock sliding - it looked pretty cool to do but Evelyn decided to be chief photographer instead of going in the cold water ;)

Next stop - Wallaman Falls - the road up to the falls was so steep and windy that you had to leave your stomach behind. So once we finally got to the top we hoped that the falls would be spectacular - as this is Auz's highest falls drop at 300m - unfortunately this was not the case as it's dry season (and there's a drought), the falls was a mere trickle that ended up being nothing but mist as the bottom. The track that takes you down to the base was also closed due to the bridge collapsing.

After this slightly tedious drive, we headed back to the Bruce Highway and continued to Townsville. It was so hot we had stop for mango ice cream at the renowned Frosty Mango, before heading to crystal creek. There's a big one and a little one - we like it large so headed to big crystal creek first, but got a bit side tracked by paradise waterhole (which we thought was the creek). This was a beautiful pool which was really calm and great for swimming and dipping on a hot day like today. The brave could do rock jumping...

Then we headed to little creek which was, well, a little creek with a little water fall, under a cute little bridge. This is where we realised we hadnt quite made it to big creek. Still, we were happy with what we'd seen so headed up to McCellands Lookout which was up another one of these windy, stomach churning roads. There were some great views from the top...

Next stop Townsville - we ended up at the worst campsite in the world which was grotty and full of perme residents (i.e. they live here) so we made sure all the valuables were locked up safe ;)

Townsville itself is an old navy port, with not really much else to brag about. Everything was shut by 4:30 when we arrived and the restaurants/bars shut at 9pm. We headed to the first restaurant as recommended by our trusty lonely planet (travellers bible), only to be turned away because they already had a table of 10 people!!! We headed to the bar, and was asked to join in a game of poker, before heading to the bar restaurant. We were just in time, with the kitchen closing as we sat down... Glad we made it as the food was great!!

Next day we packed up quick smart, with Marc getting lucky as the bird pooed on Evelyn ;)