Our cabin neighbours last night seemed to relish the way their door slammed to, shuddering the block of three, a task they took to their hearts with a 2 or 3am slam and a 6:15am slam. We narrowed the primary culprit down to the tall blonde, unhealthily slender of the two European women next door whose particular disregard for her resting fellows extended to the sharp thwack of her flip flops each stride. We were ready to roll at 8am by which time the two of them had resumed lounging on the communal sofas where we had found and left them yesterday.
First stop, Airlie Beach, slated as a bit of a party town it was reminiscent of a more commercial Byron Bay, bronzed young things swaggering around in the mid 30s sun as only young bronzed things do. We had a more direct mission, to seek out information on dives. Here we first heard of the requirement to wear stinger suits (mostly lycra outfits) to protect against the often invisible threat of jellyfish. A particular problem being irudkanji, largely invisible, the bell being not more than an inch [across], then tentacles up to 1m, the sting can produce anxiety attacks and fatal strokes in the infirm [not to mention the agonising pain...]. Followed by irudkanji syndrome after which many public dollars are being thrown on research. The noticeboard at the waterfront said the swimming net kept out most stingers except those less than an inch across. Curiously, there was nobody in the water.
We went up to Townsville and the Transit Centre (Bus Station) over which lies the YHA. Our original fears about cost vanished when some confusion over change indicated we were being charged AU$38 for the room, not each. Some relief, unlike the air conditioning which a notice suggests is being replaced. The room has a ceiling vent blasting air and a shiny new unoperational room air vent. The effect of the old air conditioning is evident when the door closes. It's pumping in so much air that the relative movement of the air to outside via the grilles above the windows is enough to suck the curtains up and flat against the glass. I should, of course, make some engineering estimates of the forces involved etc. to guage the volume of air being pumped into the room but I can't think of any appropriate formulae to use. For the like minded reader, the two curtains are 2m by 1m and a faded gold colour, if that helps.
Several unsuccessful attempts to glean information from the travel shop by reception left us to troop round the dive centres ourselves even though, as Helen pointed out afterwards, there were thick rows of brochures clearly identified as Townsville diving, Cairns diving, etc.. We mooched around town a bit before cruising the local sights. Not a great deal (partly because it's too hot and muggy to get out of the car once the air con is working).
We ambled out of South Townsville which is nicer than the Transit Centre's existence suggests to The Brewery and some pretty uninspiring beers. Maybe the British Brewer is more generous(?) to his customer but these nondescript offerings defied their descriptions. Lager, Ale, Wheat and Bitter largely rolling into one.
Townsville YHA S21.14371 E149.17860 Elev. 26m
Copyright 2003 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.