A wild, wet and windy night....

Bowen has really turned on the bad weather for us.  From overcast with showers yesterday, overnight we had strong winds and heavy rain.  There must have been a mini flood between the two vans during the night, as we can see where it's been.  Luckily the rain eased in the morning and at the moment it's just wind.

Bowen's in the dry tropics and rain at this time is very unusual, we're told.  "It harAfter a quiet morning doing housework in the vans (doesn't take long) and battening the hatches, tying down the awnings, etc, the guys did a few chores for Kim to help out. After lunch, we took Marg and Ruby for a drive to look at the beaches, of which there are several.  First was Kings Beach, a long stretch of windswept sand, with the tide out of course.  dly ever rains in Bowen," Kim said a few days ago.  The weather's been proving him wrong ever since.

                           Kings Beach looking south- it's nearly as long in the other direction, too.

Second was Horseshoe Beach, a delightful spot with a sheltered though tiny beach, under the big balancing rock which can be seen from many parts of the town. I wouldn't like to be living near it in an earthquake!

Horseshoe Bay 

The rock is named Mother Beddock for some reason.  I imagine the view's great from there, but there was no way we were climbing it with this cold wind blowing!

A short diversion to Murrays Bay was disappointing but Rose Bay was much nicer.  As you come over the hill, you are confronted with water backed by mountains, a delightful view even on this gloomy day.  There's a tiny little beach, and lots of rocks.  I may not have mentioned that Bowen has a profusion of very large rocks, also a number of smallish hills, which in itself is remarkable in these flat plains.

Rose Bay looking towards Gloucester Island

A few kilometres further north we came to the estuary of the Don River, and the northern end of the long stretch of rather dirty looking sand (containing rutile) known as Queens Beach, which as far as we've seen is the only patrolled beach (though I may be wrong there).  A fisherman had just landed a nice flathead when we arrived.

We drove back into town via a different route for a new perspective.  Some of the streets are very wide, most of the shopping area has middle of the street parking as well as the normal kerbside parking.  We haven't noticed any particularly remarkable buildings apart from a couple of nice old Queenslanders.  Back at the motel, John was happily mowing the large lawn using a ride on mower.  He seemed to be having far too much fun so Chris took over, and couldn't wipe the grin off his face.  Lawn mowing was never so good!