Townsville – 7 Feb

Most houses here are built on stilts primarily for the air circulation and cooling effect.  The Blenkinsop’s have a lovely house with a wonderful salt-water pool in the back.  Tom served a delicious breakfast of juice, coffee and toast with lots of choice on the spread; vegemite, jam, nutella, peanut butter and butter. 
After chauffeuring the girls around to school, Tom then chauffeured us around Townsville.  We started at the Adrenaline Dive shop to see about getting out on the Great Barrier Reef for some scuba and snorkeling.  We enjoyed a terrific vista of the downtown area and sea from the Hynes Lookout on Castle Hill where we saw an old army lookout where officers would be looking out for the Japanese in years gone by.  It was a scorching hot day so we went to the beach for a swim in a designated area netted off to keep the jellyfish out and equipped with a lifeguard looking out for the safety of all five swimmers.

 View from Hynes Lookout, Castle Hill

We had lunch at Odyssey on the Strand, a Greek restaurant near the beach with a wonderful sea breeze keeping us cool.   Tom was thoroughly enjoying his day off and the opportunity to show off Townsville.

After lunch we visited the reefHQ, Townsville’s Great Barrier Reef Aquarium which lays claim to being the world’s largest living coral reef aquarium.  Fortunately for us we visited on a feeding day.  Countless sea creatures feeding a living together in harmony; hammerhead, nurse, sawfish, leopard, black tipped, and manta ray sharks, sea turtles, tuna, and countless tropical fish.  It was just amazing as were the smaller exhibits housing sea horses, lobster, octopus, etc., etc.

Sawfish Shark

The family pool doesn’t seem to get a terrific amount of use, so Greg and I saved it from loneliness before dinner and Tom served us beer and wine in the pool.  Now that is excessive hospitality!  Ruth and Tom cooked a delicious salmon dinner complete with potatoes, veggies and delicious scone cookies for desert.  We all enjoyed chatting after dinner and we learned that Ruth has quite an interest in family history and Nancy is clearly the family negotiator.  Both girls remembered and appreciated very much, the hospitality extended to them by their Canadian cousins during their visit to Canada.  They have visited 4 of the 7 continents and that is quite impressive.