Bowen 15 – 16 Sep. 14

Got up early in the morning in the morning and drove down to Bowen and as there was no free camping, settled into a caravan park. We hadn’t visited Bowen for about 9 years – unfortunately not much seemed to have changed since we had last been there. One reason may be that Bowen is in a rain shadow area and doesn’t receive enough rain to make it the tropical paradise that people expect in this region. They had made a movie there (set in WW2) and that’s about it. It is interesting that Bowen is positioned between 2 thriving towns (Townsville and Rockhampton) but prosperity has slipped them by – although they are hanging out for the final approval for Point Abbott mining depot (Point Abbott – what is the point)! While Bowen is quite flat and surrounded by mangrove swamps, there are a number of pretty little bays to the northern side. We went for a snorkel at Greys Bay, but it was very murky, so the next day we went to Murrays Beach however it was still murky and although we saw some coral, we didn’t spot any fish. On Tuesday we caught up with a lovely couple, Kim and Deb who owned a local motel. They invited us to camp in their yard and we went over for drinks. They are interested in buying a motorhome and wanted to know what we liked about our travelling – where would we start!