Bowen, Qld

After leaving Smalleys Beach we continued our travels further north. It had been some time since we had travelled through Bowen, so decided this time we would stay a few days. We stayed at Harbour Lights Caravan Park which over looks the yacht club and Front Beach.

Bowen is a fruit growing area and is also known as the "salad bowl" of Australia according to the local tourist information.  It is also known for its mango's and there is a big mango outside the tourist information centre. Around town on various building walls there are 25 murals depicting the town history.  What wasn't on the tourist information was the number of mozzies and midgies that we encountered during our stay, apparently they had only been around for the last 2 weeks!!

We stayed for 3 nights and had a good drive around visiting the beaches, notably Queens Beach, Rose Bay and Horseshoe Bay.  Also went up to the lookout at Flagstaff Hill which gave a great view of Bowen and the surrounding bays and islands.

View from Flagstaff Hill towards Rose Bay 

From Flagstaff Hill looking towards Bowen and the harbour.

The town jetty used in the filming of the movie Australia

Jetty from Front Beach

One of the towns many murals on the hardware shop wall.

Continuing north on the Bruce Highway, our next stop was Home Hill about 100 km south of Townsville.  Home Hill is a sugar cane growing area and welcomes the passing traveller to town and encourages them to stay.  You can stay next to the information centre in a side street for free or, as we chose, stayed at the Show Grounds for $12 per night.  This was a one night stop over with the intention of driving into Townsville the next morning, doing a quick shop then out the other side. This is exactly what we did and stayed the following night at Blue Water roadside free camp, on the Bluewater creek.  This is a very popular spot and was full the night we stopped with several 'wizbangs' (camper vans) coming in late. Not sure if we would stay there again but worked out well for us on this occasion.

The next morning we were up early and headed to Forrest Beach, 17 km out from Ingham.