TOD Tour, Day 77 - Bowen

We had a fabulous time in Airlie Beach.

Grand Theft Mango

Travelling further north, we reached Bowen by late morning and had a lovely chat with the lady at the tourist Information centre.

Interesting place Bowen. Of recent times, it's famous claim to fame was being the location for filming of the Darwin scenes of Baz LuhRmann's dreadful movie "Australia". I say dreadful on the basis of it being awful and under my usual method of down playing criticism ... but before that, it was the theft - allegedly overnight - of the giant mango which made international headlines. It was "stolen" as a publicity stunt by a restaurant.

Sue had designs on it herself.

What we discovered, which we missed in 2010, was substantial. Muller's Lagoon for instance. In the midst of this dry town, a beautiful lake with more than 160 bird species. We saw Little Black Cormorants, darters, pelicans, spoonbills and a variety of ducks and other water birds. North of town, we visited Horseshoe Bay; a very narrow bay with a small beach and sentinel rocks at either end. The cafe across from the beach serves the best mochas outside of Tamworth's Cafe 2340.

After Bowen, we went basically west, which seems counter intuitive. The roads were flat and long today and fuel I consumption was sensationally low.

Rainbow Bee Eater

Our over night stop was at a free camp behind the beach, about 90 kms west north west of Bowen. Its a fifteen minute drive through the cattle property Wunjunga, across mostly dirt road but you end up right behind the beach. Called Funny Dunny Park, its basic but the bird life and the location make it special. We saw at least eigh different species of birds during the 100m stroll to the beach from the camping area, including my mother's favourite, the Rainbow Bee Eater, which I managed a not half bad snap of.

Brilliant field of stars tonight were te only distraction to a good night's sleep.