June 18 (Day 139) - Home Hill to Townsville

After breakfast we headed out of Home Hill.

Just on the northern outskirts of Home Hill, just before the Burdekin Bridge, we saw a rock museum on the left, so thought it might be worth a look.

It was reasonably interesting, although very old in its layout. It had been started by the father of the man who owns it now, who himself would be in his 70's, and the general decor, raw timber cabinetry and mismatched shelving units gave an appearance of a private collection started in the 1950's, run on a shoestring budget, and which had bit by bit grown over the years and probably outgrown any plans the original owner may have had! I imagine it's the type of private collection of artifacts collectors may have held in Victorian times on their personal field of interest, which people may have been willing to pay a small sum to view.

There were a great variety of different types of rocks.

Opal is always gorgeous!

It seemed the collection owner had a particular fascination with Agate, as there were walls and walls of the stuff. Some of these had very interesting patterns inside them which they'd identified and labelled!

Once we'd left the Rock Museum we headed up the road, had a healthy lunch at a service station (most of us did eat something salad-y this time!), and then into Townsville.

We had been invited to stay with a couple whom Mim knew in Perth many years ago, and one of whose children I'd known as well. Many houses in Townsville are built on stilts, and this particular house has an apartment built in underneath in which we are to stay. This is a welcome arrangement, given the caravan will be going in for repairs tomorrow.

Oh the luxury of having space! It is surprising what one misses when spending all the time in a car or a caravan!

So we are now settled in Townsville, and intend to be here until early to mid next week. I will probably write a single entry update covering everything we've done in Townsville once we've left here.

-- Greg