It barely counts as Day One because most of it was spent in Melbourne. But suffice to say the trip up was pretty smooth and uneventful. Once we landed in Townsville at about 6:55pm there was only a short wait for our bags to emerge on the carousel, then we hit the taxi rank for a ride to the ferry terminal. Old Mate Taxi Driver was a grouchy dude with a rough beard and the body odour of stale and fresh cigarette smoke combined, but he was very keen to get us there in time for the 7:30 ferry departure. That meant some slightly aggressive driving and some mutterings about “bloody roadworks” but we were ultimately grateful for his efforts when we were told the next ferry left at 9:20! We made it just in time and the ferry whisked us across the water to Nelly Bay where, in keeping with our nick-of-time scheduling, a bus was just about to leave. We jumped on and after a brief discussion about where we were going* we set off.
A short walk from where the bus dropped us off, and we were in our cosy little AirBnB. A quick change into more Queensland-appropriate clothes before we went for a walk around to see if we could find some food – our aeroplane “dinners”** were small and at 5:30, and it was now well after 8:30.
A stroll around the block took us to the local pub, which was promising. Except we were politely told the kitchen closed at 8:30 and the only food they had were packets of chips. They did however tell us that the only other restaurant nearby claims to be open until 10, so we bought some chips and marched towards Baked on Maggie.
Which was shut.
So we trundled off back to our accommodation and polished off the chips, making plans for a supply run the next morning.
Footnotes
* Him: where are you going?
Me: Oh, the stop near McCabe and Bright please.
Him: Where are you going though?
Me: Oh, our accommodation on Hayles Aven-
Him But what’s the name of where you’re staying?
Me: Huh? Oh, um, let me see… [scrolling on phone] sorry AirBnB isn’t telling me the name of-
Him: Oh! Nah AirBnB is no good, the names are always changing. Tell you what, I’ll drop you off at the corner of McCabe and Bright, that ok?
Me: Um… yes?
** Pie and sausage roll for me and a quiche and veggie roll for Eva.