Bowen, Ingham, Tully

The Big Mango Information Centre at Bowen

Bowen harbour full of boats

We spent some time in Bowen,walking along the almost deserted Queens beach,  and visiting the Market  listening to the live music. We then  drove around the harbour area and onto Airlie Beach which was extremely busy.The only place we found to park was a carpark in the closed National Parks office, so we decided to have our lunch there as it was a nice area.  I took some photos from the car as  we drove along and through Proserpine and then to Bloomsbury rest area where we stayed the night.

Bowen

Bowen

High rise apartments at Airlie Beach

Bloomsbury Rest Area

We continued on from our overnight stop at Bloomsbury and decided to change our plans again and to head north  to Herberton as this little town was on our original plan to visit the Historical Village there which we had heard was well worth a visit.  So Plan B saw us heading back up towards Townsville. We passed through Home Hill and bypassed the main part of Townsville and onto Ingham.   The traffic was busy throughout the day and the rest areas were crowded so we continued on to Rollingstone where we stayed overnight at the Bushy Parker Park.

Home Hill, Steel Cathedral type bridge over the Burdekin River

Bushy Parker overnight stop, Rollingstone

We left the Bushy Parker Park overnight stop and headed to Ingham, Cardwell and Tully.

Near Ingham

Cane farms near Ingham

Ingham is a small town in the sugar cane area and at this time of year they were harvesting the cane and loading onto the cane trains.

Near Ingham

Cane farms near Ingham

Cardwell

Cardwell

Banana plantation

Haughton River near Townsville

Sugar cane

Cane train at Ingham

 .

Sugar cane growing area 

Sugar cane train

Cardwell

Tully was our next stop, where we did some grocery shopping and then  got stuck behind some trucks, and  a detour because of an accident found us on a different road to what our GPS was telling us but we continued on hoping to end up in Herberton, but we ended up in Ravenshoe about 30 km from where we wanted to be.  We checked our map (the old fashioned type) and ignored our GPS and eventually got into Herberton.
As we had booked this caravan park the day before, we were able to set up straight away in this pretty little park in a beautiful bush setting.

Herberton caravan park

Wild River Caravan Park, Herberton

Brandon, Bowen, Qld

After a few days in Charters Towers, we were ready to hit the road again.  We just can't stay anywhere for long as there is always something else to see down the road.

Mingela Range in the distance

Driving towards the coast now we noticed the countryside changing to more tropical scenery which was a pleasant change from the dry, dusty inland areas, although they have their own beauty.

We passed through the Mingela Range and on to Ayr with Mango farms and Sugar Cane farms.

A typical farm house on a sugar cane farm

Ron managed to find some more "rusty stuff"

Sugar Cane farms near Ayr

In the little town of Brandon we noticed a sign for the Historical Museum and of course we stopped and had a look around.  It was meant to be a quick look and then on the road again but as soon as the volunteer found an interested visitor we got the full tour.  It was very interesting, especially for Ron, but I was struggling to keep up with all the information on tractors, steam engines, diesel engines and much more.   We were told that the engines had all been restored by volunteers and they started up one of them for us.

Back on the road again after a quick lunch, then stopped at a small parking area for our overnight stay at Guthalungra.

Guthalungra

Guthalungra

Bowen

Bowen

Next morning we took the Pacific Coast Way, the A1, to Bowen.  We walked along the beach at Bowen and found the exercise machines on the beachfront so had to try them out  .There was also a Market  so we had a walk around, listened to some live music then on to Airlie Beach another 50km

Just what I needed

On the road to Bowen

Charters Towers

After leaving Hughenden we passed through some very small towns with nothing more than a service station and a few houses.  The scenery along the roadside was mainly wattles which were in flower and some grevilleas.  The distance we travelled was about 250 km, an easy drive although towing a caravan requires concentration and there are a lot of semi trailers and large trucks and caravans on the road so it is not really relaxing.

We arrived in Charters Towers around lunch time and found the caravan park we had booked into.  We don't usually pre book but there are a lot of caravanners on the road and most of the parks have been pretty full and we didn't want to be turned away as there weren't any other options.  I did a quick tidy up in the van and got rid of the dust which has been annoying me most of the trip.  The country here is so dry and the dust gets into everything.  We had a quick drive around town, went to the Information Centre and got a CD for a drive yourself tour which we will do tomorrow.  We are not sure how it will be as they told us the map didn't have all the numbers of the sites and we would have to use another map to work it out - sounds interesting!  We drove up to Towers Hill Lookout to view the city at sunset.  It was lovely and even had a nice boardwalk to get some other views.

Towers Hill Lookout

An old ambulance at the museum

 Next morning we set off with our CD and maps to do our drive yourself tour.  We did manage to find most of the sites on the map but unfortunately many of them were closed, but we did have a good drive around and got some photos.  During WWII there were 29 bunkers in Charters Towers, and with a Federal Grant there has been a recreation of some of them and in one we were able to view a film.  American soldiers were based at Charters Towers during the war.   I found some interesting signs on our drive yourself tour.

Columbia Poppet Head

Next day we went out to the Burdekin Weir, source of the town's water supply.  We had lunch in the picnic grounds and some native birds came down for the crumbs.

Blue faced Honeyeater

Butcher Bird

Blue faced Honeyeater

Burdekin Weir

Burdekin Weir

Burdekin Weir

Burdekin Weir

Burdekin River

The bunker site

A visual display in the bunker

WWII bunkers boardwalk

The boardwalk at sunset from Towers Hill lookout

The boardwalk around the WW2 bunkers