The owner of our motel, suggested that we stop at Bowen if we were not in a big hurry. Bowen was originally established to become the capital of Queensland but that never happened (sort of like Cobourg Ontario). The result was wide boulevards but not too much in the way of a downtown core. Typical one storey shops with awning covered sidewalks.
We stopped at the tourist information centre and got some tips on what to see. The first stop was Flagstaff Hill which provided an overlook of Gloucester Island and the marina.
We then went for a bit of a walk in the "downtown" area to see a number of the street murals depicting the history of the town. An interesting attraction for this small town of 10,000 people.
They have reduced the risk of graffiti artists destroying the murals by having a penalty of 5 years in prison for defacing any building with graffiti.
We had a nice latte and salad at one of the few cafes that was open (apparently everything closes on Mondays during the "slow" season).
We continued driving kilometre after kilometre past flat sugar cane fields with the odd mango grove popping up. There were no fresh mangoes as the season was over about a month ago. We had a washroom stop in the interesting little town of Home Hill.
A cute main street with a couple of examples of the classic old Aussie hotel. You can still rent the rooms on the upper floor....
Finally we reached some hills and a sign to Bowling Green Bay National Park. We decided to check it out and ended up at Alligator Creek. There were very few people there but we did manage a bit of a walk to the overlook of the creek. It was too hot to do any kind of significant walking but it was good to get out and stretch our legs.
I saw a really cool butterfly that looked like a combination bumble bee and butterfly.
When we arrived in Townsville, we remembered we had read about a nice overlook of the city at Castle Hill so we stopped there first.
Our motel was right in the heart of the CBD which made it convenient to walk to the restaurant district by the river for supper.
We decided to try the Townsville Yacht Club that advertised that they welcomed visitors. A great choice, outdoor dining overlooking the river and the boats.
This part of Townsville was great, lots of modern buildings mixed with some vintage buildings. A really vibrant area.
We returned to our hotel for a late swim in the tropical oasis pool to cool off before retiring for the evening.
As we were watching TV, we learned of the possibility of another cyclone that could come ashore in a couple of days. We will have to keep our eyes on that as we plan our activities.
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