THURSDAY JUNE 10 THE INLANDER

The train was not leaving till 12:40, so we walked down to the Strand in beautiful weather.  We came to the Anzac Park entrance.

The fountain had more jets than you could poke a stick at, but one of them was blocked so Lyn did poke a stick in it and got it working.  Ms Fixit.

 We found more war memorials.  This one was to commemmorate the Battle of the Coral Sea, which Townsville was heavily involved in as a supply centre.  It was opened by Kim Beasley and George Bush Senior's secretary.

There are two kilometers of beach along here and all the land for 50 meters back is public park.  No huge high rise blocks.  We loved the children's water park.  Lyn tried out the cannons.

Once they turned on the taps we stood well clear.

That big blue bucket tipped over when it was nearly full.

We found Townsville's own "Little Mermaid" but it was not attracting any attention.  Lyn gave it some sympathy.

There were many curtain fig trees along the walkway and this one was called the tree of peace.

Pity about it being a strangler fig.  As we walked back to Classique B&B we had a good look at the decorations on the town's water tank.

We walked to the station and found that the Inlander had a loco, a luggage van, two twin sleeper vans, one single sleeper van, a buffet car and a sit-up-all-night van.

Our cabin was nearly the same as the Queenslander from Brisbane to Cairns, but there was no bag of goodies, no dressing gown and slippers, etc.  The service was poor and the evening meal pretty awful.
We did get a voucher for a free cup of tea and milo.  The beds were comfortable and we slept well. It was much cheaper than the other trains and was still good value.