Sunday – March 8, 2026 – Townsville
Today we visited a zoo in Townsville. While there we were introduced to a 2-year-old salt water crocodile named River. The zookeeper let us touch River. I got a photo of Kelsey touching River’s back which reminded me of a similar experience 30 years ago in Louisiana. We went on a swamp tour with Jan’s parents and at the end of the tour we met the guide’s 5-year-old alligator named Julie. Kelsey was also 5 at the time. She stroked Julie’s back much as she did with River. So, today’s featured photo is a combined photo of those 2 events – River on top and Julie below.
Today is International Woman’s Day. As you’ll see from the gallery, the tugs that met us in the Townsville harbor had banners on their boats announcing that fact. This is the first port I know of where Magnifica was greeted with a water salute. One of the tugs sprayed a welcome as we moved toward the pier to be moored.
We had an early excursion to the Billabong Sanctuary which is located about 30 minutes from port. The weather forecast had been showing rain for the morning, but we were fortunate and only had a few sprinkles early on. While driving to the zoo the guide told us that the trails would not be paved and would be dirt. With all the rain in the area recently (lots of local flooding) we expected it to be like what we walked on in Fiji (the excursion from hell). When we arrived at Billabong, we were pleasantly surprised. The trails were not paved but they did have fine gravel all over, so they weren’t slippery and were easy to walk.
A guide from the park – Summer – took us to the first site. There we saw wombats. These were not like what we had seen at the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary in Tasmania. These wombats had been in the zoo for 6 or 7 years. At Bonorong they try to release wombats back in the wild by age 2.
Next stop was the koala area. After our experience at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney we weren’t expecting to see many lively koalas but that wasn’t the case here. Before entering the koala area, we had to step in a chemical disinfectant so we would not carry germs into the enclosure. The koalas here were wide awake and I think they wanted to be photographed. There are plenty of photos in today’s gallery of our time with the koalas.
Summer led us to an area that had a plexiglass fence around it with 2 DeWALT tool cases inside – each with a padlock on it. That should have been a clue that something was up. She brought out the 2 cases then unlocked and opened the smaller of them. She reached into the case and when her arms came out, they had a rough scaled python on them. The snake was not large. She talked about the snake and offered all of us the opportunity to touch it. Kelsey and Jan declined. Although I am no fan of snakes I decided to feel this snake’s texture. You’ll see a photo of me with the snake in the gallery.
The snake went back in the DeWALT box, lock was set and Summer opened the other (larger) box. This time she brought out a 2-year-old saltwater crocodile named River (mentioned earlier in this post). River had its snout held shut with a rubber band. I would not have liked to feel how a bite from River would have felt. This time Kelsey said she would feel the skin – which gave me the opportunity to take a photo as we had when she felt an alligator.
Next on the agenda was an introduction to Jupiter – a 50-year-old saltwater croc with one eye and several missing teeth. Jupiter was around 4.5 to 5.0 meters long. Don’t know how much he weighed but looked like more than me. Summer told us that crocs don’t need to eat frequently. They can make one good meal last for a year. The tease the crocs with food in order to be sure they get exercise. You can see from the photos in the gallery that Jupiter would stretch high out of the water to try and reach the bird on a string that Summer held over him. One surprising thing she told us was that crocs can be very fast and can move their length in 1 second. In his case, this would mean Jupiter could move forward 15 feet in one second. The moral of this story is that you don’t want to stand too close to a croc (not that I would want to stand anywhere near a croc that wasn’t in a pen).
There were other crocs in separate enclosures. One “friendly” fellow is named Jaws. He is so friendly that he ate 3 of his last 4 girlfriends. The largest croc in the sanctuary is named Krakatoa. He weighs 800 kilograms (approximately 1,700 pounds). That is a lot of belts, shoes and boots!
On the way around the walking loop, we also saw a pair of pink cockatoos, turtles and a blue and yellow macaw that you’ll find in today’s gallery. The exit from the sanctuary leads you through the gift shop so, of course, we bought stuff on our way out. Kelsey bought a crocodile and a shirt – Jan and I have shirts.
Our excursion continued as we drove around in Townsville. Our guide told us that the population was over 200,000 and that the largest army garrison was here (3,000 military personnel). They also have a Royal Australian Air Force base in town. We drove to an area within a military compound that houses Kissing Point Fort. From there you can view an island not far off the coast named Magnetic Island. The story is that it was so named by the English captain James Cook who sailed around it and, in the process, noted that his compass was malfunctioning. Since we were at kissing point, we took the opportunity to take selfies doing just that!
We had the option to get off the excursion bus in town or return to the ship. We opted to stay in town and look for a place to have some lunch. As we were walking down the street Jan saw Yvonne going into a store. We stopped her as she exited and she told us Carl was across the street sampling beer at the Longboard Restaurant. The 4 of us walked to the restaurant, found Carl and settled in for soje lunch. It was hot outside but inside there were ceiling fans and some air conditioning so it was comfortable. We had a good tasting lunch (I had 2 Barria tacos), Jan and Kelsey split a huge chicken sandwich and seasoned waffle fries.
After lunch we looked for a grocery store to replenish our essential supplies – Mountain Dew, Tim Tams and popcorn. There was a Coles store a couple blocks from the restaurant, so we headed there. We found Mountain Dew but the only packaging they had was a 24-pack (which is fairly heavy). Out of necessity we put that in the grocery cart and looked for the Tim Tams. It was our luck that Tim Tams were on sale 2 for $8 (Australian). We bought original, caramel, strawberry with white chocolate and white chocolate. Then we found the popcorn and got 4 bags of lightly buttered. I found a display of Easter candy that had Cadbury solid milk chocolate eggs – so we determined we needed those as well. Thank goodness there was a shuttle bus back to the ship!
On the way to the ship, we met Edgar and his wife in the terminal. He was having trouble sending photos to his kids and I tried to help but I didn’t understand his phone. We lugged our groceries to the cabin and laid them out for a photo that is in today’s gallery. I forgot that we also got Cadbury dark chocolate infused with rum (you’ll see that in the photo).
The gallery contains a time-lapse of our sail away from Townsville, Kelsey by the decoration at the restaurant for International Woman’s Day and Jan and Kelsey with paper flowers made by the bar staff for all the women passengers.
Here you will find the gallery for today.
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