Cooking in Townsville - and I am not talking cup cakes.

Mt Stuart draped in cloud

Taking advantage of an almost long weekend over the Australia Day holiday, I caught a flight to Townsville to visit my daughter and catch up with some friends.

On Friday I borrowed a mountain bike and hit the road for a nostalgia trip around Townsville.

It was only a couple of minutes down the road when I had to stop and wipe my eyes.  It was pretty hot and the sunscreen I had put on my forehead was already sliding into my eyes!

But once my eyes were cleared, I had a good look at the Lagoon that has been sculptured around the new suburb of Riverside on the south side of Ross River.  It was very serene, waterlilies and of course the ever present weed - water hyacinth.  Highlight was the Comb-crested Jacana flapping around, dragging their long legs behind them.

Towards Castle Hill

I pedalled on to Railway Estate and turned right to have a look at the National Boat Ramp.  I had been part of the RIVER (Ross Island Volunteer Environmental Research) crew back in the late 90's early 2000's that recorded the Ibis & Cattle Egret colonies that shared their roosts with thousands of fruit bats.  Each Thursday evening 2 hours before sunset, we would count the ibis and cattle egrets flying to their roost in the mangroves across the river, collecting base-line data that could be used to try and protect that mangrove area from being demolished in the future by the expansion of industry.

National Boat Ramp

There's now a fancy floating pontoon at the ramp - obviously boat ownership continues to rise.  Looking up river to where we used to sit, the erosion of the bank was very obvious.

Museum Tropical Qld,  Ross River

I then cut through South Townsville, rode up along Palmer street, turned right, rode over the bridge and dodged through the traffic to get onto Flinders St East for an easy pedal along  the Strand.  As I was heading out to The Common, I stopped at the Tobruk pool and bought a muffin and a drink to enjoy out at the bird hide.

It was a pleasant ride along the bike/pedestrian path that snakes along the Strand.  There weren't too many pedestrians, but still more than a bike rider needs!  I managed to dodge them all and didn't run over any miniature dogs, so all was good!

The Strand and Magnetic Island

Absolutely swearing at myself for forgetting my bathing togs and considered just going for a swim in my knicks & T-shirts, but I pedalled on past the Rockpool and on towards Rowes Bay.

The bike path that continues out to Pallarenda is a godsend as the road has almost no shoulder and is quite busy with speeding traffic.

By now, I was starting to think fondly of my dear bike Nellie with her nice comfy padded seat, gel seat-cover and seat post with shockies!  how do these guys survive on these narrow, hard seats?

I turned left towards the Golf Club, checked out the cattle egrets in the wetlands by the entrance to the Club and rode onwards to the Common.  A speed bump at the end of the sealed road was followed by a corrugated gravel road, with several large potholes with muddy puddles that were quickly drying up after last week's rain.

The Common

At the first hide I could hear magpie geese but they had their heads down in the long grass.  Saw only one black cormorant flapping along.  Similar vista as I rode towards the bird hide - lots of water but hardly any birds to be seen.  They were off at the other side of the park where people can't go, obviously.

I had chosen the same day to visit as the mower man.   He was beetling around with a tractor and slasher - there goes the neighbour hood.  Thankfully it was soon his lunch time, so I was able to sit in the peace and stillness of the Common, watching a Great Egret poke around the edge of the lagoon, catching its lunch the hard way, while I attacked an apple & cinnamon muffin.

There was a lot of evidence of wild pigs digging around the edges of the lagoons.  This isn't good news - they are probably eating the tubers that the cranes feed on.  I didn't hear one honk of a crane the whole time I was there...

From the bird hide - pig diggings, no cranes

after awhile I headed back to the main road.  It was getting pretty hot by now and as the road to Bald Rock is pretty exposed I gave it a miss.  I bet that's where all the birds were!

Castle Hill from the Common

I rode on to Pallarenda, into the Environmental Park, eyes peeled to see if there were any signs of the Tawny Frogmouths that used to roost in the paper barks, but lucked out again.  I sat on the beach in the shade under a Terminalia and looked across to West Pt and dug around in my memory bank for images of our life there 30 years ago!  so many good memories!

By now, lunch time was on the horizon, so I felt I should check out the C-Bar - location location location - and the food was good enough.  didn't see anyone I knew there - looks like its no longer the place to be - though it is still a beautiful place to sit and eat.  A White-breasted Sea Eagle slowly flapped past and gave a quick glimpse my way.  No turtles or dolphins today.

Townsville from Pallarenda

I stayed in the cool air-con for quite awhile as by now the temps was pretty high and I had been achieving the cooked lobster look.  I teed up afternoon tea with a good friend, so later pedalled out along Ross River Road to Mundingburra, only glancing once at the thermometer which said it was 34C at 3:30pm.  No snow here for sure!

I had a great time visiting old haunts and as I didn't attempt to ride up Castle Hill, the rest of it is flat flat flat!!!  Yeah, a bit hot and it took a day or too for my skin to cool down, but some things never change!

West Pt across the Bay, Magnetic Island