Bowen to Balgal Beach



Bowen Jetty

 Where have we been? Enjoying the warm winter and beautiful swimming. The town of Bowen which you may have heard of as it was the town which the movie 'Australia' was filmed. Firstly we checked out the lookout where you could see the coastline and small township. Everything about the town was old which is why I guess they chose Bowen for the film. The girls really enjoyed walking out on the long and old jetty.

We have been travelling beside cane fields for some time now, but the drive towards Townsville was quite scenic looking at the hills behinds the cane fields.
Townsville is just a big town, which we only spent a day looking around. The highlights were the water playground and the Castle Hill lookout was a great spot for some scenic walks.



Townsville waterpark





Our camping looking at the river mouth

  Our next camp was at Balgal Beach, it was an amazing spot with green grassy sites right on the beachfront and river mouth adjacent. We were there for 3 days and put the boat in for a fish. Darrin caught a mangrove jack and I caught a cod, but both not big enough to keep. But the best catch of all was a mud crab by Emma on her lure. Winding her rod in she yelled in excitment "I've caught a fish" and next thing up came this mud crab holding onto her lure. We were not quick enough to get it before he let go.

The girls had so much fun on the beach collecting shells and building sandcastles and there was a playground there as well. Swimming was not recommended in the beach or river as there has been a crocodile sighting. But there was a georgeous freshwater swimming hole just a few kilometers up the road where we went swimming.