7/28
MISSION BEACH – CARDWELL – TOWNSVILLE
The crazy driver brings us back to the bus stop for Townsville. The sky does not bode well even today. I go to take a look at the beach. The sand is reddish, iron oxide, I guess, the sea is brown, as usual. Facing the beach, the green and menacing silhouette of Dunk Island. In addition, gray clouds. A discreet color palette, I’d say. But the landscape is rather disquieting, and it’s not warm at all, I wear a sweatshirt.
The bus stops for an hour at Cardwell. We eat on the beach. It’s low tide. The water is always brown, but in front of us, Hinchinbrook Island is towering, with its rolling hills, green forests, and a beautiful ring of turquoise water around. Here the sunshine appears.
At 14.00 we arrive in Townsville. We go to the Reef Lodge, really clean and nice, the rooms are freshly painted, with blue and green tones, white beds and furniture, blankets printed with colorful fishes. It seems to float in an aquarium.
Townsville, although almost no one stops here because everyone goes to Magnetic Island, is a pretty town, much more than Cairns, there is a beautiful beach, finally a decent sea and a beautiful rocky hill overlooking the city, Castle Hill. The shops shut at 17.00, except the big shopping centers, fortunately.
We enter then in a supermarket to buy something to eat. The food area has an assortment which can satisfy every ethnicity. At least one shelf is dedicated to pasta and pommarola of all types, very well known brands such as De Cecco and other I have never heard of, that perhaps they only produce for the foreign market. The same is in the Mexican, Greek, Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, Thai section. In addition, since the Australians have the culture of easy and fast food, here there is a huge choice of take away, freezed, dried food. I decide for the latter.
At the hostel’s kitchen I meet a guy, genuinely impressed by my lyophilized penne alla puttanesca. We start to speak in English, and then I discover he is from Naples, that’s why he was horrified at the sight of my food. A didgeridoo player who is directed in the Northern Territory for Aboriginal festival in Arnhem Land. In this area still live many tribes, the inhospitality of their land has slowed the invasion of white people and saved them from genocide.
We eat together. My penne alla puttanesca suck, by the way.
The more the guy from Naples speaks and the more Hannu and I think it would not be bad to participate to this festival, at least we would see something authentic. So far, from this point of view, we have seen little. Unfortunately, however, to be admitted we have to pay a high fee, plus the flight which is not exactly free and therefore we give up. Pity though.
I complain with the guy that I could not get in contacts with any Aborigine, since it seems to me they want somehow to keep the distance. The musician instead states that, on several occasions, he took the initiative and talked to them, and they reacted as affable and good humored people.
7/29
TOWNSVILLE – CHARTERS TOWERS
We rent a car from Billabong car rentals. Toyota Yaris, 157 Aud, for two days, to be returned at Airlie Beach. The initial price was 49 Aud per day, then there is a surcharge because we return it in a different spot, then other Aud 18.90 for further assurance that it was not necessary for the Australian legal purposes but we preferred to pay to be more relaxed.
We move to Charters Towers, a town located 135 km to the west, which the Lonely Planet defines to be the beginning of the outback, it flourished in the days of the gold rush and it’s well known to tourists for the presence of some original wooden buildings.
Along the way, it is a massacre of kangaroos. We find lots of them lying on the roadside, even the red ones, the largest species. We are terrified of investing one and drive with a thousand precautions. All this my apprehension is partly unfounded, as it’s 11.00, it’s hot, and they definitely must be somewhere hidden in the shade. Accidents happen in fact, from dusk to dawn when these marsupials are revived and graze on the roadside; the headlights of cars, rather than remove them, have a mesmerizing effect. This is also the method used by the farmers to kill them. Every year, 2 million kangaroos are killed in Australia with the permission of the law, because they steal precious livestock pastures, and at least as many are killed illegally by landowners. who think that the limit placed by the authorities is not sufficient to counter the threat. The preferred technique for the ambushes is just to surprise them in the dark pointing their high beam machine on them: no longer able to escape, they get therefore prey for the human beasts.
Italy is among the largest importers of kangaroo leather. It seems to be a lot softer than the calf one, and therefore easier to be worked in the footwear manufacturing, especially for the soccer shoes (!!)
Charters Towers is what it is, a small town with some old wooden house with laced verandas, painted and well kept, beautiful floral parks where it is pleasant to lie half an hour in the sun, friendly people, and nothing more.
We go back to Townsville before dark, again because of the kangaroos. Take a ride on the promenade and in the center, and then we go on Castle Hill to see the sunset. The climb is steep, the car just held the second gear, and, after some curves, even the first one. Despite the slope, it is full of joggers. Australians really are people who love outdoor sports.
7/30
TOWNSVILLE – BILLABONG SANCTUARY – BOWEN – AIRLIE BEACH
First stop, 16 km south of Townsville, is Billabong Sanctuary, a kind of zoo where all possible and imaginable Australian animals live. Entrance costs 22 Aud. Everything is structured around a large pond, precisely billabong in Aboriginal language.
The visit can be free, or using a standardized program, at 9.00 hold a koala, 9.30 feed the dingoes, etc .; There are some grey kangaroos hopping freely around the park. They are beautiful, it’s possible to caress them. Obviously, this is an atypical situation, since, in normal conditions, they do not come close to men. They bounce on the ground with a speed and grace that I did not expect, as silent and elegant as cats.
For the first time in my life I see a wombat, similar to a big guinea pig, then finally a cassowary, and I can get into a fence where some pretty wallabies are eating seeds from my hands.
In addition, crocodiles lying in the sun and dingoes lying in the shade
Visitors are allowed to keep koalas in their her arms, but I refuse to stress them, even though everyone else is doing it. Aborigines believe that koalas are the reincarnations of the souls of the dead children, as the verse their puppies emit when frightened is similar to the one of human infants
Sure, it would be nice to see all of this in free nature, and not in an environment forced by man, even if respectful enough of animal rights.
We leave from there at 13.30, and at around 16.00 we arrive to Bowen, seaside village that has been recommended from the employees at Billabong Car Rental. One last effort, and we are finally at Airlie Beach, the departure point for the Whitsundays cruise. Really a nice town. Some world famous hostels, like the Waterfront Backpackers are already full, other ones suck, so we have to fall back on Whitsunday Wanderer, 86 Aud, a huge room, beds for 5 people, a kitchen and a bathroom almost as big as my whole apartment in Italy
