After about an hour or so of driving today, we arrived at
Bowen. Being Good Friday we had booked
ahead and arranged to spend the entire Easter break here. Our caravan park was opposite the marina and
after unpacking and setting up, we all jumped on our bikes to see what was in
town. Many of you may already know, but a
large part of the movie ‘Australia’ (Nicole Kidman & Hugh Jackman) was actually
filmed in Bowen. The town was set up to
appear as Darwin and many of the locals were actually extras in the movie. Perhaps you will recognise our picture of the
wharf? Along the water were a few play
areas including a lovely little kids water play area – in town it was extremely
quiet as none of the shops were open.
The streets are really wide as Bowen was at one time going to be the
capital of Queensland, but that plan obviously didn’t go ahead. Whilst riding around the streets we heard a
Harley approaching. Sure enough it was
Mark and Sharon who we had briefly met at Hydeaway Bay. We got chatting for a little while and then
arranged to meet at their tent site later for a few drinks. It was a nice afternoon with great company.
Saturday morning, Josh and Samantha went for a bit of a
drive to get some supplies. We had to
force these kids to get a bit of school work done this morning as later this
afternoon we were off to Bowen horse races to try our luck. We picked up Mark and Sharon to come along
with us and then headed for the race track.
It was a pretty good turn-out for the country races and, all in all,
Josh didn’t do as bad as normal in the betting department. After dropping our new friends back at their
tent at Horseshoe Bay, we went for a trek up a mountain near Rose Bay to a
large boulder at the top called ‘Mother Beddock’. The sun was starting to set which gave us a
gorgeous view but we couldn’t stand to stay there too long as the mosquitoes
were eating us all alive! Back to the
van to have a quiet night…
Easter Sunday we woke to find the inside of our caravan
covered in small Easter eggs.
Fortunately the Easter Bunny had found us! By the end of all the gathering, the kids had
a big bowl full of eggs for us to all share and after my first six or so I was
feeling pretty sick! I don’t what
happened but the bowl is now empty??
Anyway, after brushing our teeth profusely, we drove over to the Bowen
markets to see what bargains we could find.
There was a pretty cool toy stall but as the caravan living goes, there
is no room for toys. Sami did get a pair
of toy handcuffs though (great for locking her up in the van) along with a
Spongebob iPod cover and Zoe got a spotty dog hood with these dangly long
sleeve things… there is no way that she will be needing it this year while we
chase the sun, so we may have to send it back home for storage. In the afternoon, we had a bit more of a
drive around the area, followed by another long bike ride.
Easter Monday was our last full day in Bowen. Mark and Sharon came to visit us at our van
this morning as they were leaving town in search of new adventures. The kids were pretty chuffed to have their
photo taken on board their Harley before they left… what a sight! It gave Josh and I hope that later in life
our kids would travel this beautiful country again together. This afternoon we caught up with our other
new friends, Eileen and Ralph, but this time not on board ‘Escapee’ but instead
at their home in Bowen. It was once
again really lovely to chat and have a few drinks and be welcomed so warmly
into their home.
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