We left the caravan park mid-morning with the intention of doing some sightseeing along Townsville's famed "The Strand" and the CBD. Our route took us past Castle Hill with many houses built on the slopes to take advantage of the view over Cleveland Bay to Magnetic Island. But there was one which stood out, with it being suspended out of the rock and supported by 18 steel poles brought back to just two foundation points.  

Before making our way down The Strand, we had a look around Kissing Point which is at the Northerly end of The Strand adjacent to Jezzine Barracks. The 15-hectare heritage precinct commemorates the military and Aboriginal heritage of the Kissing Point headland through various public artworks and interpretive storyboards. The "First Contact" sculpture represents when on 6 June 1770 local aboriginal people would have seen a strange vessel out to sea, that being the Endeavour commanded by James Cook.

After spending some time walking around that area we drove down The Strand, but being school holidays parking was at a premium and we decided look around elsewhere. Perhaps we've spent too much time in the "outback", but there were building/road works forcing detours everywhere and we found nothing in the CBD to make us want to spend time there. So we finished up driving to Pallarenda which gave another view back to Castle Hill.

As an aside, last night Lucinda saw a bird she'd not seen before when returning from the amenities at the caravan park. From the bird watching brochure we picked up at the Tourist Information Centre she determined it was a Bush Stone Curlew. These birds are known for their eerie, high-pitched wailing at night. This ghost-like call is their contact call and may be given by several birds in a chorus. Lucinda thought it sounded like "Rio" and that's pretty close to the references which say the call is rendered as weer-lo.

Dinner was chicken tenders with pasta salad with creme caramel accompanied by peaches for dessert.