Bowen

Bowen, Queensland was a nice stop for us.  The wind was kicking up and we needed a place to tuck in.  The boat harbor has rows of steel piling which you tie the boat between.  It was actually very secure in the howling winds and the price was much better than a marina.  You did have to use your dinghy to get to the dock but otherwise it was quite satisfactory.

Nicole Kidman rides in to 'Darwin'

Bowen is a very rural Australian town.  It is where the Nicole Kidman/Hugh Jackman movie 'Australia' was filmed.  We watched the movie a while back but had to see it again after seeing the 'real' places.  

Old Customs House, Bowen

 Here's a picture from the movie and the actual building.  They brought hundreds of truckloads of dirt and covered the paved streets to simulate Darwin in 1940.  The cattle station was set up right at the waterfront and the coal loading pier was modified to look like the Darwin shipping pier.  It was a pretty good movie.

Booker modeling my Aussie Hat

We met Gordie James at the Sailing Club.  He had great stories.  We rode our bikes to the Sunday Market at the beach.   I got an nice Aussie Hat to keep the sun from destroying my ears.  Baseball caps just don't provide the sun protection down under. 

The Giant Mango

We met up with Gordie and Roseanne there.  We put our bikes in his van and they took us around to see the big Bowen sights such as the 360 Restaurant and the Giant Mango.  We burned off the extra calories from breakfast ('brekky' in Australian) by biking back to the marina.  Bowen, an unexpectedly great stopover on our journey to Townsville.

Bowen Bay, Boat Harbor on the right. Very dry in the winter.