100% Humidity

So, we left it with me boarding a plane in Sydney, to head all the way North to Townsville, Queensland. Arriving midday, I headed straight to my hostel to unpack, before heading into the CBD to check out the local area.

Now, I don’t want to appear as though I’m gloating to all of you people in Europe or America who’ve had to cope with the mad snowstorms and cold weather of the past month, but Townsville is really too hot. Hot and humid. I’ve been wandering round like a true English tourist, finding even sitting down too tiring. The beautiful scenery worked as a partial distraction, but the temperature was incredible.

Townsville is truly detached from the rest of Australia, with such a different feel to the suburban cities I’d previously been to. It honestly feels more like the Wild West in the tropical climate of Northern Queensland. My attention was caught by the presence of the V8 track, but it was then fully seized by an air-conditioned souvenir shop which offered respite from the heat.

On entering Queensland, I knew that I was meant to have changed my watch by an hour as this state doesn’t observe Daylight Savings, while NSW does. Unfortunately, I didn’t know which way it was meant to go. The best I could do was consider how incredibly hot it felt, and guess whether it was 3pm or 5pm. Assuming that the crazy temperatures outside must be the heat of the day, I went with 3pm. Thankfully, I was right.

I took a stroll along the ANZAC memorial gardens, and meandered amongst the monuments. There are a number of points where you can press a button and sit back to listen and learn about the history of the town and the Australian armed forces, so I sat back in the shade and did this.

Unable to stay in the sun any longer though, I eventually caved and went and sat in an ice-creamery to cool off.

The next day, I explored further along the pier and the main streets, and found out how to get to the local stadium, to cross off #7…

Dairy Farmers Stadium
Attendance (Capacity): 4,315 (26,500)

North Queensland Fury 1-3 Newcastle Jets
Hughes (P, 90); Zadkovich (13), Haliti (15), Griffiths (69)

Sat on the South Hill, it didn’t go quite as well as I’d planned. An earlier shower meant that this was a genuinely wet hill, so I fashioned a makeshift seat out of my bag, making sure not to crush my sunglasses. With the Fury rooted to the bottom of the league, they had decided that the time was right to throw a few fringe players into the mix, which had expected results. The Newcastle Jets took an early lead through Zadkovich (who is the worst player in the division – I’ll add an explanation later), before the Fury gifted them a second. As the game wore on, a host of poor referee decisions began to steal the show, with the crowd only then distracted by personal injuries.

Jets goalie Ben Kennedy was the first to go down, comically flapping at the ball in a diving save, before sending his head flying into the post. In what I felt was a slightly patronising manner, the Fury played “I get knocked down, but I get up again” through the PA when Kennedy finally staggered to his feet. Next to go down was a flag waver from the Fury, running along the side of the pitch waving an 8-foot high banner, he slipped over three times, receiving a big cheer each time. By the time he got back to his seat, he was muddied, and the flagpole was broken.

A third followed for the Jets, before the Fury were given a wholly questionable penalty in the 90th minute to reduce the deficit. As for Zadkovich, having now seen him at least twice, he needs to work on his play. He seems to play right wing, but is easy to read. He will never run the ball down the wing – on every occasion he cuts inside and is tackled, or attempts a supremely difficult shot which inevitably doesn’t work. On his one opportunity one-on-one with the keeper where he really should have shot, he pulled it back to a player marked by three defenders. This result also means that I’ve now seen the Jets win twice in their three games, and it won’t be possible for me to see the Fury win a match (not that many of their fans have either!)

The following day, the true cost of the match made itself known: 14 separate insect bites up my back and leg. A bottle of sting-eze has been bought.

I’d planned to spend my third day in Townsville climbing Castle Hill to enjoy the views, but the sheer heat and humidity of Queensland even in the morning put me off. As it was, it turned out to be a good idea not to climb it, as the heavens opened soon after in a powerful thunderstorm. This topical tropical weather leads me well to mention the current flooding in Australia, which I have so far avoided. However, as I head down to Gold Coast and Brisbane next week, the flooded areas are near to there, and local dams are running at up to 140% capacity. However, I should be able to avoid any threat of floods.

Day 4, I visited Reef HQ, the Coral Reef centre of Queensland, and the place to see examples of the Great Barrier Reef if you’re unable to scuba dive. Checking out the various corals, fish, sharks, stingrays, and all other creatures of the sea is a fascinating thing to do. I’ll put a few of my favourite photos on my Photobucket, but here’s a couple on the blog as well.

It also included a trip to the Turtle Hospital, the Townsville sanctuary for injured turtles recovering from things as far ranging as pneumonia to a fishhook caught in the throat. These monstrous Green Sea Turtles are nursed back to health, before being released back to the wild… Though they do look like they’d be awesome pets.

And finally, I leave you with this terrifying creature which appeared in the hostel soon after arriving, and since it didn’t move the time I was there, I presume it was dead. I wasn’t touching it though!