Judy & Brian Tour Oz

 Bowen Qld. August 2nd 2024 Left Rollingstone a little reluctantly, because despite the incessant wind and the near frigid pool, it was a very pleasant place to stay. Here's what we left behind. Are we crazy? Tasman Caravan Park, Rollingstone Qld Tasman Caravan Park, Rollingstone Qld Anyhow, left it behind we did. Travelled south through Townsville, which seems to get bigger every time, something like an hour and a half to finally clear the city, and then an easy sort of run down through Ayr to Bowen. Road is rough in patches but a reasonable sort of run got us into Bowen at 1pm. We set up and went to get some groceries but got side tracked and had lunch at Horseshoe Bay in the cafe, which I have to say has really come on since last year. Nice food though, good coffee and some great rock and roll from the 60 and 70s playing. They know their target market. This year we lucked into a front row spot, which faces straight out onto the ocean: Guess we'll just have to tough it out fo...

 Bowen Qld August 14th 2023 Came down from Townsville to Bowen, about two-hundred kilometres. Not a bad trip, except for a great stretch of road surface that could have been Pebblecrete. Whatever it was it produced a really harsh ride and was basically hard work to drive on. As soon as we rolled back onto normal bitumen, it was like sliding along, effortless compared to the other. View from Flagstaff Hill, Bowen Qld Bowen has lived up to our expectation, a great site in aa great van park. Absolutely brilliant weather. Couldn't ask for more. We did the half-hour tour of town including Flagstaff hill, the esplanade and the ex-flying boat base, and a bit of a look into some shops. One of 14 Lighthouses in Queensland. Bowen Qld Finished the afternoon laying by the pool. I even went in despite everyone saying it was freezing. Maybe I'm getting used to cold pools, but it didn't seem that bad. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner out and ended up at the Grand View Hotel, where ...

Bowen Qld Sunday 21 August 2022 435km Longish trip today, but each year the Bruce gets a bit more done to it and the drive gets a bit easier. As mentioned on the way up, the section through Townsville is pretty awful despite being a new superhighway, basically top speed 80kmh, lots and lots of traffic, and it lasts for 40km. We had stopped for coffee at Ingham, where as luck would have it, a big long parking spot was available right outside Maccas. We took a break at Ayr and found a lovely park one street back from the highway. We had sandwiches and cold drinks for lunch and a bit of a rest before heading out on the last leg to Bowen. The wind had sprung up by now and was pushing me about a bit, which apart from making the drive a lot more demanding, it was using up fuel at an alarming rate. We were down to the 80km warning sign and 60km to go when out of the blue, in the middle of nowhere, a service station popped up. Naturally we pulled in and topped up. Surprise! Cheapest fuel ...

Townsville / Bowen Qld 19-21 August 2019 Two short-run days. One from South Mission Beach to Townsville, where we stayed at the Woodlands Big 4 overnight, right out on the northern fringe of town, and the second from Townsville to Bowen. Our first stop out of South Mission Beach was Ingham, where we thought we might get a nice coffee overlooking the wetlands. The parking is near the info centre and you walk across bridges spanning the wetland to get to the cafe, but sadly the cafe has closed. We stopped on one bridge to look at the Lotus flowers and scan for birds, of which there were none other than the usual wetland varieties. What we did notice though was that as soon as you stopped on the bridge and looked down, turtles started coming straight toward you, from all over the pond, not one or two but 30 or 40! Obviously these are being fed by someone. Judy trying to tickle a turtle. Ingham Qld In Townsville, the park was deserted except for 'tradies' who have picked ...

First I have to say that the state of the road, the dreaded Bruce, from Townsville to Airlie Beach, is much improved on previous years and made for a pleasant enough drive down the coast. We were a bit apprehensive about going to Airlie Beach, it having copped a belting from Cyclone Debbie at Easter this year. We shouldn't have worried, the debris has largely been cleared away, the most substantial damage having been done to the vegetation, and some of the older, non-cyclone proof buildings. The first surprise to us was that our caravan park, The Big4 Whitsunday Adventure at Cannonvale, just up the road from Airlie Beach, seemed a lot lighter and brighter than in previous years. They tell us that they carted away 300 trucks's worth of mulched vegetation. Having been here heaps of times, we haven't been doing much in particular, and once again have resisted temptation to spend vast amounts of money to visit Whitehaven Beach and other sites. Even though the pool is pa...