Take the last Train to Townsville....

'Hey, hey, we're the Monkees, and people say we monkey around, but we're too busy singing......to pull anybody down!' I know these words don't go with the title but it made me think of this song . So, we arrive in Townsville. The drive down to The Whitsunday Islands was ten hours. Too much for one day we thought especially as the view basically consisted of sugar cane fields. So having resisted the temptation to stop off at the Sugar Cane museum on the way down we arrived in time to check out the local attractions.



Before the bucket....and after! The children fighting to put each other in the line of the downpour at the free water park along the promenade.



Chris got up early to jog along the peaceful prom.... then took a dip in the pool. This Townsville hotel also provided a source of mystery. If you look at this pool shot closely apart from a hunky male you will also see , a hosepipe and the "plug". Now follow the line between the hosepipe and the plug and you will see another black dot. This was infact a set of car keys which came flying past us and landed in the pool at about 11pm the night before. We sat intently waiting for some irate male shouting "****##*@%%' " as he dived into the pool fully clad who would then shake his fist at some female smirking on a balcony above us before slouching off but nobody ever came. So having completed his 6 lengths Chris took the keys to reception and we can only guess how or why they ended up there. I risked going out on the balcony in my silky nighty to get this photo, but at 7 in the morningI didn't need to worry as there were few people about. I only embarrased myself when Chris stood in the shower asking me who it was on the music channel and I read the weather forecast scrolling along the bottom by mistake and told him it was Alice Springs rather than Dido. Although he says he should be equally embarrased for showing interest in A Dido record.



The good thing about waking up early is that there is so much more you can do with your day!
This playground, for teenagers, was so impressive that I took plenty to send to local councils back home! It had things like arm wrestling and a collection of swing round seats, which suggested on the plaque,' sit and spin or just chat a while'.



That little dot at the top is Jessica. I get quite nervous at her bravery!(it's hard to get a true impression of just how high this climbing structure was.)




In case we have upset any irate Monkee fans out there; we know it was actually Clarksville