Back Down Southwards

Townsville is about as far as we’re going North and we have a whole rack of things we want to do on the way back to Toogoolawah so the following day we head back down the coast.

Looking for a place to stay for our next night we take a chance on a town called Bowen. With nothing much in its favour in the description in the lonely planet guide we’re pleasantly surprised to find a pretty campsite right by the harbour and we set about exploring the sea front. The tide has gone out quite a way and the beach stretches round from the harbour as far as the eye can see. As we get closer the sand appears to be moving. The sand is covered in thousands of tiny crabs which scuttle frantically away as we approach. There are so many of them that you can actually hear them scrabbling along the beach then burying themselves in the sand. They don’t look like your normal sort of crab either, really round with markings on the body that make it look like the head of something much larger, almost alien like. Further down the beach we spy starfish, dozens and dozens of them and if you look carefully you can see them moving along too. Really fascinating. Its getting late so we about turn and resolve to continue our explorations the next day.

Up early again for our run, we notice the colours still present on the sea from the sunrise and resolve to get up and watch the sunrise the next day (at 4am approx., yikes). Exploring the town by car we find not only a good selection of small town shops but also a fantastic array of golden beaches and turquoise seas with hardly a soul on any of them. Rob is delighted at a sign on one of them warning of crocodiles and sets off in search of one, I take the safer option and do a bit of beachcombing. With a lovely chilled day and the purchase of some huge prawns and sausages from the local fishmonger and butcher we relax on the beachfront at one of their bbqs before returning to the camp to turn in.

A brilliant sunrise greets us in the morning, we’ve walked down to the tip of the harbour to watch it and as we walk back towards camp we’re rewarded as the sun continues to send the sky different shades of crimson, orange and gold which is reflected beautifully on the water, with the silhouetted masts of the boats forming a perfect contrast. We don’t unfortunately see any dugong for which the area is famed but we’re happy enough with the sunrise and crawl back into the camper to grab a couple more hours sleep.