Townsville to Bowen

Tuesday

The convoy continues! Drove from Rollingstone to Townsville. Found out that Townsville is the capital city of North Queensland (not Cairns) and we could see why as it was quite a big and built up urban sprawl with a fair few high rise commercials. We found some free parking and split with the girls (they went food shopping and we looked for bank and barber shops (Tom not happy with his hair, although it is perfectly adequate). We phoned ultimate oz and booked up for a Whitsunday's sailing trip on a party boat and a Fraser Island tour package. The only availability for the party boat was a week on Thursday which is a while to wait since we are so near to where it sails from. But at least it's booked! Excited! Fraser Island is open dated so we can use it whenever we get there.

 After lunch we joined back with the girls and went to the strand and sat by the beach for a bit. Later decided to head off to the next free campsite but it must have closed down as it had disappeared from the location we read off the map. With no other free sites around the girls suggested going back and spending the night at the free car park where we eventually had tea, but subsequently got moved on by Townsville council security. They told us of a nice camp spot with a toilet block 10 mins north of the city right next to the beach where we could stay without being bothered so we spent the night there instead.

Following the German girls into the sunset 

Wednesday

Another sweltering morning waking up in the van - We forgot to park the van in a shady area when we arrived and so suffered the consequences. Even worse, we only had porridge for breakfast but we did have full cream milk this time instead of just water. Eating hot porridge in the blazing sun at 9am is not the best breakfast I've had but it did the job and we were full.

Spent the day having a look round town and using the community wifi to sort out some online chores as I'm starting to call them. Also very frustrated that Facebook will only let me upload a fraction of the pics I want to share online. I've given up.

Still haven't had time or enough data to Skype but we are off to a Telstra or Optus shop soon to see how much fixing up m my iPad to a payment plan is. Then hopefully we will have Internet access every day.

Lunch at subway (first of the trip). I remembered that subway was pretty cheap compared to most other places when I was last in Aus. And it still is.

We decided to try and charm the German girls by learning bits of German (mostly outrageous chat up lines) off google translate and also by offering to cook them dinner. It went down a treat and they really liked it. Rogan josh curry with rice. Came out very well, will def be cooking that again. Making progress!

Stayed at the camp spot by the beach again but security came and told us this would be the last night we could spend here - the Locals don't like it happening all the time, which is fair enough.

Our camp spot

Thursday

Toms birthday! Up early as sun was unbearable in the van again at 7am.

After finishing a work out we were greeted by the German girls who were giggling and looking very shy. this was because they had lovingly prepared a small cupcake complete with candle and presented it to Tom singing happy birthday and gave him hugs. You could have probably seen the jealousy written all over my face. It was a Lovely gesture and very sweet of them.

We decided to go off into the city and then to a shopping centre to finally try and sort out some mobile broadband. It took a while but we had success at last! I now have a new smartphone (random Chinese manufacturer called Huawei) which is actually not a bad little phone! It's hooked up to a prepaid plan $30 a month for unlimited ...

We wanted to try and hook the virgin wifi dongle that came with the van up to a virgin plan but then found out there are no virgin stores until Brisbane. Instead we paid $40 for about 3.5GB worth of data to use for one month only which should last us fine until we get to Brisbane. So now at last i'm able to use Internet, email and social media without scouting for free community wifi. Ooh I feel like I'm living in 2013 again. Also downloaded whatsApp onto my new phone so if you have it, add me! My English number is inactive until i'm back in the country so don't text or call. Use my Aussie number which is +61 (0) 416 529 517. 

Went back to our camp spot again wondering where we would spend the night seeing as security would get the police on us if we slept there again. The girls had been drinking wine and we joined them  and before we knew it security were here again telling us to move. However when they realised we'd been drinking they told us we could stay one last night. And then told us off as its against the law to drink in the area we were drinking. So alas we had somewhere to stay thankfully. They told us that if we were looking for work then we should head on south to Bowen where there are heaps of tomato, mango and capsicum plantations. Since we were heading south anyway and had a while to wait until our Whitsunday's sailing trip we thought it was worth going there and asking around for a few days work.

Friday

Spent the morning up on castle hill scenic lookout, climbling, break dancing and messing around. Castle hill is a massive mound on its own that overlooks all of Townsville, the great dividing range and the coral sea. Spent the afternoon on the strand by the community lagoon and beach cooking our fave meal for lunch. Marinated kebabs and rice! Soon I'll be getting Tom to eat greasy kebabs from takeaways haha something he never said he'd consume!

The German girls had gone to do their laundry and look for work. We didnt know when we were meeting up again but when we texted them they said they'd found a free parking area north of the city but we didn't know where abouts exactly. Language barrier taking effect. In the end we decided to stay in the city and parked the van in a shopping plaza car park where I had my first (Tom's second) McDonalds since ben in Aus! I think I lasted quite well!

We were planning on going out into town for a few drinks but we literally fell asleep while having pre-drinks in the van. The bottle actually slipped out of my hand as I drifted off, which is quite a common occurrence with me. Shouldn't be any excuses I know but we think the past few days of tearing around everywhere, the heat and the early mornings had finally caught up with us.

A sign from above that Tom should eat more kebabs

Our view as we ate lunch

Saturday 

Survived the night in the car park with being ticketed. Drove to Bowen. Had lunch by the harbour, saw a guy hook a seagull with a fishing rod (unintentionally) then decided to try our luck asking around a few farms. Not much luck but a potential lead with a random phone call. Tourist information were crap. No advice to give us apart from there are absolutely no free places to park the van in Bowen and police will fine you $200 per person if caught. Nice! 

We reluctantly paid to stay in a camp site that night for $25. But least we got to use the kitchen, laundry and hot showers! 

By Bowen Harbour

Cool palms

Sunday

Spent the whole morning reenacting scenes from django unchained going around all the farms asking if they had any work. Found nothing. First time I've felt so demotivated in a while. Flashbacks of being rejected from architectural firms after graduation! Everyone saying the tomato season has pretty much ended and the mangos don't start until November. Bad timing or what. 

Spent the afternoon lazing by the harbour and charging gadgets. We are very confused and slightly concerned by the lack of activity in the towns we have driven through. Especially on weekends. Bowen is probably triple the size of Wetherby but with a population of 1000 (bit less than Wetherby). Very spread out but with less residential areas. Still, you'd think it'd be busy down by the waterfront on the weekend but no, hardly anyone at all. A few fisherman and the odd backpacker van, couple of joggers, couple of people eating fish n chips and a random guy with a metal detector. Where are all the kids and families? Where do they go? Haven't seen anywhere that's slightly busy. There'd be more people down at the river wharf feeding the ducks than there is people here by the harbourside. This town must surely rely on tourism and passing travellers otherwise it would be written off the map. Interestingly enough though, it was the chosen location to shoot the film Australia by Baz Luhrmann with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. They transformed town into what would have been Darwin in the 1940s. Apparently only 90 people from the whole town volunteered to be extras. That explains a lot!

Its 6pm and we are sat by the harbour contemplating what to do and where to stay tonight. Think we will book an extra night at the site we stayed last night and see if we get lucky in the morning with this potential job lead. If not then we are making a quick exit and driving on to Airlie Beach and Proserpine where we will have until Thursday to kill. Not very good when your running low on funds and trying to save the $