Bench Series : January Garden Benches #2

Jude’s new bench series is very popular and has benches to sit on all around the world. Go to Jude’s post to see them.

Here is my number 2 entry, a peaceful, serene seat among the peace lilies in the Townsville Palmetum Gardens. To revisit those gardens click here

Peace lilies glowing white in the under growth

 

A Word a Week Challenge : Garden, Townsville Botanic Garden

The theme that Sue has chosen from her dictionary this week is GARDEN. I know there will be lots of post’s submitted on this theme. Go to Sue’s blog “A word a week” to see all the different gardens from around the world.

It  would be my all time favourite subject. When we travel I always search out the Botanical Gardens in each area. Today I am going to take you for a stroll around the beautiful, small but exquisite Queens Gardens in Townsville, Australia.

 

Initiated in 1870, Queens Gardens is the oldest Botanic Garden in Townsville and is heritage listed. Now covering 4 hectares, reduced from an original 40Ha, it is considered a fine example of a tropical colonial garden of that era. Originally established as a trial acclimatisation garden for European settlement, in which potential food and economic plants were trialled during the era of colonisation.

 

Today the gardens are a lush green oasis set against the dramatic pink granite cliffs of Castle Hill, and offer a quiet cool retreat from the nearby city centre. The emphasis of the current plant collection is on colonial ornamental plants with colourful, attractive flowers, foliage or fruit.

 

Townsville residents use its luxuriant gardens for leisure and recreation, while the City Council and community groups use its green splendour to stage a variety of special events.

 

 

Castle Hill overlooks the gardens

Hibiscus

Lawn to enjoy a quiet moment

Red cloak bush

Rainforest tree

Bamboo

Barrel cactus

Bromeliad

Maze

Orchids

Mature trees

Rainforest

Palms

Heliconia

Rainforest walk

Can you see Jack in the fig tree?

On the road again… Tra-La-Tr-La

OH DEAR…..

I have just done a post telling you all where we are and what we are doing BUT I pushed publish and some how lost it all…

We are now in a lovely, free camp area, but it does not have power, so the battery on the computer is now getting low, so I am not able to repeat the post, so I will be in touch again when we get to a power source…

Damn, it was such a good post, Lol….

Suffice to say we are back on the road with Matilda and life is good, and we are heading north….

The sad story of the little black hen…

Lucky the hen

 

This little black hen was the pet of the children and the owners of Adventurers Backpacker Hostel. The hostel we have been staying in for over 2 weeks while waiting for Matilda, our van, to be repaired. The hen had the run of the place and at meal time would wander around the kitchen cleaning up any dropped scraps. (I did a post when we moved here and you can see it by clicking here)

On Monday when I went to the office to pay for the next weeks accommodation They asked me if I had seen the hen as it had not been seen since Saturday. She told me the hen’s story.

Approx 8-10 years ago they were given this young pullet. They let it roam around but suddenly heard such a commotion, squawking and flapping, when they rushed outside it was too late, the dog had savaged the chook. So they threw it in the bin. A short while later, when walking past the bin, they heard scrabbling noises, and looking inside found that the chook had “miraculously” come back to life. They nursed it back to health and called it “Lucky”. (good job they hadn’t buried it)

So back to the present: They put lost notices around the hostel and along the street, but no one replied to them.

Next day I noticed a crowd of hostellers were gathered, loud excited voices, arms waving and gesticulating, and in the centre of them a police woman was taking notes. The plot thickens…

Later when every one had dispersed and all was back to normal, being a “nosey parker”, I went to find one of the regulars who I was sure would know the full story…

She told me one of the hostellers had been at a BBQ on Saturday and another hosteller arrived with a chicken, all plucked and cut up, ready to be cooked on the BBQ. The chicken bearer was very drunk and boasting about how he had “found” this chook. The second hosteller noticed all the black stubs of feathers left in the skin but thought nothing of it till he saw the lost notices next day.

The owner and her children were very distraught, all the regular residents were very angry, but nothing could be done as it was only hear say.

What about the supposed culprit? Well he packed his bags and disappeared.

 

A native and dry tropics experience…

This is the third Botanic Garden in Townsville and the largest. Anderson Botanic Garden is 25 hectares and was originally an arboretum so it is home to a magnificent and outstanding collection of tropical trees. Set in sweeping lawn areas these stately rainforest trees have room to grow to their full impressive height and width.

It is now more than an arboretum, it has been extended to a true botanical garden with interesting collections of plants. As we entered we first wandered through a collection of tropical lushness. This was the Cape York Peninsula Collection. Palms, creepers and vines competing with the rainforest trees. butterfly’s were a feature in this area. Fluttering around and teasing us as we tried, unsuccessfully, to photograph them.

A school was on the boundary of the gardens and we ate our lunch (a tuna, salad roll we bought at “Subway”), sitting on a bench under the shade of a huge rain tree listening to the happy sounds of children at play. A blue winged kookaburra perched in the branches above waited patiently for any crumbs. We could only see one other couple and the gardeners as we looked across the expansive lawns. The gardeners told us the park was well used in the early morning and evening by excercisers and dog walkers, but now we had the 25 hectares almost to our selves.

We walked on. The lotus pond offered a photo opportunity. With ducks, water lilies, reflections and of course the lotus flowers and their enormous, plate-like leaves. It was almost the end of the lotus flowering season but a few lingered on in their fading glory.

We walked along grand avenues of trees and then found a corner of the park devoted to a world collection of cycads. There were 300 plants.(I didn’t count them it told us the details in a pamphlet), from 4 distinct zones, Africa, Asia, Americas and of course Australia. These are amazing plants and some of the oldest known species going back to the time of the dinosaurs.

A tropical orchard had many fruit trees I had never heard of before. Elephants nuts anyone?

It was a very interesting and well designed gardens. The helpful, friendly bus driver put us out at one end then told us how we could walk right through to the other end, then where to catch the bus from that end, to save us walking back to where we started. We really appreciated that because after almost 4 hours every short cut was welcomed.

I recommend a visit to all  the Botanic Gardens in Townsville, they are so different to each other…

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A Tropical Experience

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It is very difficult to capture the atmosphere of a place with photos. The photos show the beauty of it, but it is the smells and sounds, the feel of the soft, warm tropical breeze brushing over your skin, the foliage rustling, the constant squeaking of the bats and their offensive, putrid smell, the flash of a bird and butterfly as they float by that add so much more to an experience.

I look at these photos and I am transported back to this unique place.

Tumbetin Lodge was built in 1934 and is predominately constructed with silky oak it was originally a school room for the Roman Catholic Church. Now it is a delightful café, information centre and art gallery. It was our first stop for a reviving cuppa and delicious savoury muffin. What a great way to start our exploration of the gardens…

The bus drivers that went above and beyond the call of duty

Palmetum carpark

Today we decided we would visit the second Botanic Garden in Townsville. Checked the bus timetable then walked down town to catch the 11-15am bus. Just as we turned the corner we saw it pull out. We waved to attract his attention, but I don’t think he saw us. Oh dear, it was an hour before the next bus left.

Then one of those things happened that really restores your faith in human nature. Another bus driver saw us and asked where did we want to go.

“Hop aboard” he said, “I can radio ahead and get him to wait for you. I’ll be able to catch him up.”

So as he drove along, still having to stop and pick up and put down passengers, he rang the depot and passed on the message, which was then relayed from the depot to the driver of bus 209, the one that we had just missed.

Sure enough 10 minutes later we caught up with 209 where he was waiting for us. But that is not the end of the story. When we told the driver of 209 where we wanted to get off, he said, “There isn’t a bus stop there, but I will drop you as close as I can.”

Well 20 minutes later I saw the sign for the Palmetum and wondered how far from the entrance there would be a bus stop. Well to my amazement and absolute delight the bus driver turned into the car park of the Palmetum and dropped us right at the front gates.

These two men really made our day.

Tomorrow I will send a card and letter to the council in appreciation of the employees that went out of their way to help us.

The gates into a Botanic wonderland

This Botanic Gardens was totally different to the Queens Gardens, we were immersed into a tropical wonderland and, of course, we took more and more photos, trying to capture that magic. Now I have to sort them out and tomorrow I will take you into this special Botanic Garden.

When our tired legs finally carried us back to the hostel we decided to have a roast pork pub meal at the heritage Shamrock Hotel, it is just a 5 minute walk from the hostel. With a glass of wine and a beer for Jack it was the perfect end to the day.

Shamrock Hotel

Queens Gardens Townsville Botanical Garden

I have shown you a video of the rainforest part of Queens Gardens but there is so much more, ( and I took 100’s of photos ).

In Botanic Garden terms it is small and compact, but there is so much to see and it is beautifully maintained. A team of gardeners were working and we took a few moments to chat with them. Not many people around but the few that were here were making the most of the perfect weather and peaceful garden.

So come stroll with me, here is a slide show of more views of this garden.

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The photos of the family and the gardeners were taken by Jack. He is very good at capturing people. You can see more of his photos on jacksjottings

He has just posted a poem on aging, it is very good, worth having a look at…

Up-date on Matilda’s condition….

Visited Matilda yesterday and was pleased to hear that the parts have finally arrived. New complication is a leaking radiator 😦 . Could by-pass the leak, very technical, or replace radiator. Soooo more expense…

Monday is a public holiday so no work on her that day.

Good news is she will be ready to hit the road again mid-week. Yee Ha…

Modern Day Townsville

Castle Hill, a huge pink granite rock monolith 286 metres high dominates the Townsville sky-line,  it is just short of being proclaimed a mountain. In this mainly flat country side it is a great place for dedicated fitness fanatics to get a work out.

Another iconic building is the Cowboys Leagues Club. The Cowboys have a very strong dedicated following. It was semi-final the weekend we were in the bush camp on the outskirts of Charters Towers and the Cowboys faced the Sea Eagles. With eskies of beer and BBQed sausages and steak the fans gathered to party and cheer their side on.

Then the video ref made a bad decision.

The Cowboys lost and next day it was the talk of the town, front page news in the local paper and on the TV news. For days it was discussed in the pubs and especially the Cowboys league Club.

So that is my take on Townsville, a trilogy of Montage’s.

Today we will visit Matilda and see how she is getting on then walk to the Botanic Gardens.