Darwin and Townsville

There is slightly over a week between each of the first 3 test matches so I am taking the opportunity to see some other bits of Australia that I’ve not been to before. First up was a 3 hour 40 minute flight from Perth to Darwin. After struggling at the bag drop alongside Mike Atherton and Steven Finn, the flight was uneventful and I even had a spare seat beside me – result!

I arrived in a sticky Darwin in the early evening, and after a brief wait for the Uber pricing to reduce slightly, I arrived at my hotel, which is the biggest bargain accommodation so far. Outside of the cricket and my side trips in Perth, I have been staying in hostels to keep the cost down. I am being a little picky but have generally been paying slightly over £30 per night for shared accommodation. This place (DCH on Mitchell) was £38 per night for my own en suite room. Not too many frills at the hotel but the room was clean and had a fridge and TV, the AC worked, and there were toiletries in the bathroom so all in all, a very good deal.

The sun was setting by the time I’d arrived, so I had a brief walk around Darwin and its waterfront. The city centre is pretty small and easy to walk around. I was expecting humidity here and I was not wrong, but it possibly wasn’t quite as bad as I’d feared. A cyclone had blown through only a few days beforehand which may have tempered the heat and humidity a little bit. There were several trees across the city that had been uprooted by the winds.

I only had 1 full day in Darwin, which I think is plenty to see the city. But you can easily spend longer in the region with a car, enabling easier access to the national parks.

I took an Uber to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory – probably only a 10 minute drive but humidity. An interesting (and free) museum with a number of thought-provoking exhibits including some Aboriginal Art, an exhibition on the 1974 Christmas Day cyclone which essentially destroyed Darwin, and maritime exhibits with examples of different types of boats used in this part of the world, including Indonesia and SE Asia which are much closer to Darwin than other Australian state capitals.

I was particularly struck by the introduction to the Aboriginal art exhibits which started with the words ‘in so-called Australia…’. The other very noticeable thing almost everywhere I’ve been so far is the acknowledgement of the traditional owners of the land and their ancestors. I don’t recall so much of this in my previous visits to Australia, or maybe I wasn’t paying so much attention…

After a very good lunch at the museum cafe, I walked back to the hotel, via the Botanical Gardens which were, unfortunately, closed due to the impacts of the cyclone. I did, however, manage to sneak in to some bits, which helped make the hot and humid walk slightly more direct!

After making it back to the hotel and some AC, I spent the afternoon chilling out before another walk to the waterfront and then a very reasonably priced (and good) sushi dinner.

My very brief visit to Darwin was over the next morning as I headed back to the airport for my flight to Townsville.

I was at the airport way too early, partly as a result of basically only ever taking international flights. You’d be fine rocking up about 90 minutes before a domestic flight here, no one has yet looked at my ID on the 2 internal flights I’ve taken so far, and there are no liquid restrictions in hand luggage.

I arrived in Townsville mid afternoon after a 2 and a half hour flight. As I was staying with a friend in Townsville, she came to pick me up from the airport, and after dropping my bags at her place, we went for a late lunch on the Strand. After lunch (by now late afternoon), we had a lovely walk along the Strand, which is fairly well shaded so the heat and humidity wasn’t too bad for me at this point. In the evening, we drove up Castle Hill for views of the city.

We went to Magnetic Island the next day which is just a 15 minute ferry ride from Townsville. Maggie Island, as the locals call it, is a beautiful little island off the coast with some great beaches and hiking trails. There is a hop on hop off bus (for something ridiculous like $1 each for a day ticket) which runs between the ferry terminal and Horseshoe Bay and allows easy access to the main sights. We did the Forts Walk, along with quite a few other people. This is an approximately 2km hike up to some WW2 fortifications. It was very humid so it was a hot and sticky walk but well worth it for the views.

After lunch we headed back on a mid afternoon ferry to some cool and refreshing air conditioning. The AC is absolutely vital here, I’d dread to have to deal with the heat and humidity without it. Apparently I’ve visited at a less than ideal time for the humidity, next time I shall visit in the winter!

The next morning I met up with an old school friend who lives out here and had been in touch when I’d posted on Facebook that I was in Australia. It must be more than 20 years since we saw each other and it was great to catch up and hear how he’s settled into life over here. Just slightly different to Colne!!

My brief visit to Townsville was over that afternoon, and I boarded the Spirit of Queensland, a long distance train which runs 3 times a week in both directions between Cairns and Brisbane. It was running an hour late by the time it arrived into Townsville, but we eventually boarded and I settled into my Railbed seat and enjoyed watching the scenery pass by. The weather got more moody as we headed south and there were the occasional flashes of lightning. Dinner was served in the early evening (complete with gratis alcoholic beverage) and then the staff came through to change the seats into beds at 8pm (for those wanting an early night) and at 9pm (also for those wanting an early night…). The train makes stops probably every 90 minutes or so through the night before its scheduled arrival into Brisbane at 9am so I wasn’t worried about having to wake up in the middle of the night for my stop. By the time we were awoken at 6am to return the beds to seats for those of us still on board, we were running nearly 3 hours behind schedule. Breakfast was served at around 7.30am and we eventually trundled into Brisbane at 11.20am. Thankfully for me, the delay wasn’t a problem and was actually an advantage as I was able to check in to the hostel when I arrived.

It might sound odd but the train was genuinely one of the things I was most looking forward to in Australia. A 20 hour (well 22 hour) train ride, with plenty of legroom, bed, entertainment, dinner and breakfast cost me about £155. I really enjoyed watching the scenery pass, being able to lie flat (even if I didn’t really get that much sleep), and arriving at my destination without the various stresses of air travel. There wasn’t much phone signal outside of the stations so not being able to look at my phone every few minutes was also quite refreshing!! Trains will feature again at various points in my travels and I’m already looking forward to them.

After a couple of hot and humid destinations, I was glad to arrive into a slightly more manageable Brisbane for the next week or so…stay tuned for my next post to hear all about that!