Nic, Albert and a Castle

“Uncertainty is not such a terrible thing after all”.

I have always planned my life, to the last detail, in fact, by the age of 9 I had planned my whole life; from the time I was to get married to how many kids I was going to have and I got proof of all this as I used to keep a diary. However, another lesson taught by this amazing trip is that there is nothing wrong with “just going with the flow”, with not having everything planned to the dot, for instance, most of the times we set up to go in our travel we do not know where we are going. I mean, we know the general direction we are going, that is, North or West but we don’t actually book any accomodation in advance and so far…touch wood it has worked really well.

On our way to Townsville it was no different, we decided last minute to detour to Airley Beach to see what is like, see what the big fuss is about. These are places we always hear about from Melbourne, favourite and famous holiday destinations.

We arrived and found a great car park where we could leave our van and we set off exploring. Airley beach is quite picturesque, green hills with beautiful houses or apartments, very similar to the photos you see of Cinque Tierra in Italy, not as grand of course, quite a buzzing little town with lots of shops, restaurants and even a club, however, this is what I think was its downfall, well two things: one, dogs were not allowed to be walked by the esplanade and second no swimming on the beach. Well I think that kind of ruins the whole purpose doesn’t it? They do have a beautiful public pool, like a modern swimming hole with beach like border, surrounding grass and bbq but again, no dogs allowed which was very disappointing.

We moved on and stopped just outside Mackay for a night at a free camp next to a pub, great incentive by the pub as they are happy for you to park in their property as long as you support they pub in some way. There were toilets which was great but been greeted by a drunken local that would not stop talking and nearly fell off his stool…not so great.

We made it to Townsville by early evening.

Townsville

This is our second time in Townsville, two years ago Carlos and I were considering relocating to Townsville for work and got to meet the lovely Nicole, an Osteopath. Although the relocating did not eventuate we really got along with Nicole and were looking forward to seeing her again. This time, Nicole offered for us to stay with her at her house and we were excited to see her. The plan originally was to to park the van inside her pergola however when we got there we realised the van was too tall and would not fit. Nicole then offered for us to stay in her house instead and park the van outside, this was very kind of her as we can be a real handful with three kids and two dogs. Her house is an “old Queenslander“ and it is just beautiful with a great vive facing the famous Castle Hill.

I must not forget to mention Bertie (Albert), her Belgian Shepherd. As you already know from previous blogs, we have come across some very special dogs, Bertie is another one. Loyal to the bone and with the most gentle personality, Bert is all love, pure love. I have personally never seen him angry but according to Nicole he can get very protective, which is good, he is the best companion. Unfortunately, Lola and her personality made it a little uncomfortable for Bertie as she would get quite jealous and start barking, Bertie would just walk away, to a place where he was safe. We really fell for Bertie, especially Carlos who had to earn Bertie’s love.

We got to know Townsville really well, the esplanade is so well designed with playgrounds, fitness areas, a swimming area and most importantly of course, dogs are allowed.

Great views to Magnetic Island may I add but tragically, as we were starting to find out, no swimming on the beach, why you may ask? Because of the killer Jelly fish, we are talking not just blue bottle, but a tiny dynamo call Irukandji. Irukandji jellyfish are extremely venomous species of box jellyfish. With an adult size of roughly a cubic centimetre, they are both the smallest and one of the most venomous jellyfish in the world. Irukandji syndrome sends most of its victims to hospital. It takes 5-10 minutes after the sting for symptoms to set in, but when they do, they're excruciating. A typical set of symptoms includes severe lower back pain, vomiting and muscle cramps, and if particularly serious, could result in toxic heart failure, fluid on the lungs or a brain haemorrhage. So, without further explanation, were we going to go for a swim in the sea? Unlikely.

Trying to continue with my exercise "awakening" from Rockhampton I decided to join Nicole on her daily morning “stroll” up Castle Hill. I died… I believe I experienced a similar reaction to a Irukandli sting by doing this hike as my heart was in my mouth after climbing hundreds of steps following a goat track to get to the top of Castle Hill (similar to 1000 steps in Melbourne). Like Paul, I so much admire Nicole for her determination and defiantly role model of a woman; running a successful business and maintaining a work/life balance and most importantly growing strength mentally, spiritually and physically. Back to Castle Hill we did go as a family as well, driving of course and the view is just extraordinary. I do feel that although Townsville has suffered for a while with closures of nearby mines, that it is resilient and has a lot going for itself. Slowly but surely I feel that that it will become a stronger, greater city.

We said goodbye to Nicole and Bertie and once again, extremely grateful for their hospitality.

People’s kindness have helped us enormously!

Continuing with our journey up North we stopped for the night at a place called Panorella Park. A lot of interesting history about this place, all starting with a mans dream to build a castle. We decided to stop here as many people we have met along the way recommended for us to got there. A castle built through one man’s dream, the remains of what was so great gives you a taste of the grandiosity of the site. Three things happened during our stay there, first I managed to get some work at the caravan park which paid for our stay there, second we met Deb and Daz and third we met a family from Melbourne, Glen Waverley to be more exact, who camped next to us and their older son Luke, who will be going to Mazenod next year so he will be in the same year as Noah. To put this into perspective, what are the chances of meeting Noah’s future classmate in the middle of nowhere, just incredible.

I finish this blog with a little note that we received as a souvenir from Panorella Park, this came with a small stone and it said:

" this is a piece of Jose Paronella's Castle. I t was hand mixed by Jose in 1930, and came down in Cyclone Larry in 2006. We hope that this piece of castle reminds you to follow your dreams, just like Jose did"