Before we left Charters Towers this morning we took a trip out to Leahton Park Station for a Texas Longhorn Safari.  The property is run by Linda and Mick and what a fantastic job they do. We had a great morning travelling around their property in open top safari vehicles, getting up close and personal with some longhorns, Buffalo, highland cows and bison. 

Mick and Linda have developed a love for the longhorn and decided to dedicate their property to expanding the species which was in danger of extinction at one time. They’ve done an amazing job using artificial insemination, of which Linda apparently is the queen, and now have quite a large herd. In fact a few years ago they got the Guinness world record for The Longhorn with the longest horns in the world. The cattle themselves are just lovely. So docile and such big brown eyes.  How they lift their heads which such a weight on them is a bit of a mystery to me!  We finished the morning with a lovely smoko under the trees. 

We went over to see the Ross River Dam along the way. Now that is an amazing structure. There are no mountains to build a dam between so they had to create their own embankments to hold the water in. They go for miles. There was water in that dam!

While we were in the area we also went to visit the Riverway Lagoons. A beautiful area developed along the river with walkways and swimming pools. A fabulous area for the locals living out there especially as they can’t swim in the ocean up here in the north because of the jellyfish.

Helen‘s brother and sister-in-law live up here in Townsville so she was going to spend the night with them to have a family catch up.  Luckily for us she was able to take the car because we found out when we arrived, our hotel doesn’t have car parking. It is a very nice hotel though.

We went out for a walk along the Strand. Who would’ve thought that Townsville would be freezing at this time of year. A massive gale was blowing and it was very uncomfortable.  It’s a shame we couldn’t enjoy the Strand. A lot has changed since I was last here. We were forced to find a bar with inside seating!  After a cocktail and a couple of small bites to fortify us we went out to face the wind again. We found a nice little Thai cafe further up the street for a delicious Thai meal. Luckily there was a bottle-o across the road to grab a BYO.

The wind had died down a little after we’d eaten so we decided it was safe to walk back to our hotel. We needed to stretch our legs and walk off a little bit of that lovely dinner.  Our hotel is really nice.