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?
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| Tasman Caravan Park, Rollingstone Qld |
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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:
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I was busy writing this blog when I noticed it had gone dark and then there was this sunset. Had to get a snap:
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| Sunset. Bowen Qld |
There's not a whole lot to do in Bowen. One can walk along the beach if the tide is out, one can walk through the park, one can even enter Parkrun, in the same park, if one is up at 7am on a Saturday. There are a couple of beaches to swim at, but the wind has been howling and being on the beach has been a bit unpleasant. One afternoon we took some afternoon tea and a couple of coffees down to the main foreshore, where the Catalinas were based, but the wind was so strong you could barely open the car doors, let alone sit at the table and admire the view. Today has been much better, there's a bit of a breeze but quite bearable. Judy did aqua aerobics at the town pool, I went and laid on Kings beach in the sunshine while I waited for her.
To celebrate the change in the weather, we went for a dive to the info centre, which is weirdly placed 5km out of town on the road to Proserpine. Its main claim to fame is that it has a big mango, now with ant.
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| The Big Mango. Bowen Qld |
Well what can you do? You take your fun wherever you can get it. Just across the road from the Mango is a new seafood vendor come cafe, so naturally we stopped for lunch. I had a rather nice fish burger and Judy has the crumbed whiting.
Now a particularly funny, as in funny peculiar, thing happened in the van park this afternoon. This year we have a spot in the from row, right on the waters edge. The spot next to us is mostly empty except for the odd motorhome coming in for overnight stays. These people never seem to stay, just get in last thing and out first thing next the day. Today however, a car with a pop top caravan pulled into the spot. You wouldn't want to believe it, but this tow vehicles was a BMW X5! A single fellow got out and set everything and settled in for the evening. He appeared to have two dogs with him, but that's not abnormal these days, most places are dog friendly. Judy and I went for a walk, when we came back, there he is in the throws of packing it all up again! Someone had complained about the dogs and they had asked him to leave. Can you imagine that? Neves seen or heard anything like it.
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| Yikes! I'm seeing double. Maybe they asked him to leave because a vanpark can only handle one BMW at a time..... |
I went and tried the pool again, reasoning that they had had two days of sunshine and it's a fairly shallow pool, so there might be a chance that its would be warmer. Warmer? Not so that you would notice, but I toughed it out and did my laps and it made me feel good. What a hero. So all's well, as they say.
Had to visit the Port of Airlie today, for no good reason other than we haven't been there this year. Who knows they might have a nice pair of shoes in that shoe shop, or changed the menu in the cafe next to the creek. As it turned out we decided to go straight to Shute Harbour to see what they have done there. It's been looking a little 'lost' since they dredged the estuary at Airlie and invented the Port Of Airlie, and with cyclones etc, Shutre Harbour was looking somewhat neglected. So, today it seems a tad more prosperous, but a quick check finds the ferries still running from Airlie, so back we go. It's all pay parking course, just like a real city, so I ran into the ferry terminal to see what was what, only to discover that a ferry was due to depart for Hamilton Island in 15 minutes and for $89 you got a ferry ride and lunch. A no brainer.
Judy had parked the car, we waved a CC near the parking meter thing and we were off on a cruise. Not exactly what we had planned for the day but as always, we are a suckers for boat ride.
We went via Daydream island of course, which brings back the fondest of memories from the times we have stayed there, and then on to Hamilton.
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| Daydream Island, Qld |
What a surprise! The voucher for lunch was at Popeyes Fish emporium and we were offered a full range of lunch options, not just greasy fish 'n chips. I had a burger, Judy the squid, both excellent.
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| Hamilton Island, Qld |
There wasn't a lot of time left after we had fed our faces, so we took a bus ride, didn't hire a golf buggy, ate some cake from the bakery and caught the 3:40 ferry back. Nice day out actually, but arrived back too late and too tired to even bother with the Airlie shops. Maybe next year,...
Another day in paradise. Having exhaiusted the options in and around Bowen, we took ourselves off to Collinsville, some 85 km to the west of Bowen. It's a mining town. It only exists because they dig coal out of the ground here, and hove done for 150 years. It's a 'quiet' town, in as much as for the visitor there isn't a whole lot to do. We went and made friends with the life size replica of the last Pit Pony, although they never said if it was Warrior or Mr Ed on the memorial stone.
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| Warrior or Mr Ed? Pit Pony Place. Collinsville Qld |
We had a coffee in The Plaza, at the bakery, which was a shopfront with some tables and chairs strewn about outside, we bought a pie each, because I hadn't seen a real potato pie for yonks, and went and ate them next to that dear old departed Pit Pony to give him some company. Can you believe that they used Pit Ponies right up until the 1990s? A pit pony is used to drag the rail carriages full of coal out of the mine, just like they did in the 1800's. The old-time miners scoff at the newbies with their open-cut fully mechanised coal gathering. They don't think it's mining at all! I've probably mentioned it before, but just watching the huge train loads of coal being sent to the Port at Abbot point for shipment oversees, where despite our beloved greenness, it will all be burnt, beggars belief. In Canberra for instance, they have banned gas and wood heating and we will all have electric cars before 2040 because it's using fossil fuels is so bad for the environment, yet here we are shipping 100's of 1000's of tons of coal a day oversees.
After that, and having rested from the excitement, we went to the workers club, where we paid $8 a head to go underground, which is really up some stairs to the first floor, where we experienced the Coal Face Museum, which I have to admit, was pretty good. Damn harsh life for all concerned, including the ponies.
Not wanting to leave without having had the full experience, we went up to the top of the town look out. It's all downhill from here...
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| View from lookout, Collinsville Qld |
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