Bowen

 19/06/2012
  They lied about the railway being disused, I should have guessed, the rails were too shiny. So, we had the night shift rattling through at odd times with the drivers enjoying the sport of upsetting the campers by blowing their air horns as they zoomed through. At least it was free, we have payed over 30 bucks a night for the privilege of listening to the sounds of shunting!
 Another beautiful day as we drove the 10 k back into Ayr to have a look see. The first thing we noticed was the musical lamp posts in the town centre, many of the lamps supporting a speaker with easy listening songs being played through them. We have come across this before, mainly in Northern Territory where they have an aborigine problem. Apparently playing soothing music keeps the local indigenous population calm whilst they are having their mid-morning flagon of fortified wine. It works in Ayr, though Englebert Humpeduck belting out “Please Release Me” made me want to chuck something at the bloody singing lamps!
 We have moved on to what looks to be a very nice seaside town, of Bowen. We booked to stay for one night but already we think we could be here for a few days. We have walked along the prom and out along the jetty, then joined in for happy hour with our neighbours. It all looks very promising.

 20/06/2012
 Our first impression of Bowen is holding up, the place has a friendly feel about it. Our neighbours seem to be good fun, they are here for the winter doing a little job packing vegetables as a part time earner. It pays for their 3 month holiday. They earn $1000 per week on the veggie farm, we wouldn’t mind a bit of that!
 We are close enough to town to be able to walk in though it is well spread out and amounts to quite a lot of walking. Bowen is a yet another town that is doing well in this prosperous country, made obvious by the amount of money being spent on recreational projects along the sea front. There is a children’s water park being constructed which will be free, there are several shiny new  free electric BBQs already up and running and the whole sea front is being landscaped. It will be superb when it is finished.
 After investigating the town we chilled out waiting for the Wednesday night sausage sizzle to begin in the camp kitchen by the pool. This is basically a camp get together with free hot dogs and a guy singing and telling jokes. A bit holiday camp-ish but harmless fun. Our resident entertainer hailed from Manchester and reminded me of my youth spent in the pubs and clubs of that city, and bugger, if I didn’t know the words to all the songs! We are going to stay here for a few days.  

21/06/2012
Bowen is an OK place we have decided, it must be good because this is where the block buster film ‘Australia’ was made. The main film set was here but they went out on location to the Kimberley region in Western Australia amongst other places. It’s a mystery why they filmed it here transporting thousands of tons of red sand from WA to make it look like WA. Surely there must be somewhere out west they could have been based, but there again there aren’t the big town comforts in Western Australia whereas, in the grand scheme of things Brisbane and Sydney are just down the road from here. A couple of hours flying as opposed to 5 or 6 probably swung it!
 Just 5 minutes walk from the campsite is the harbour and two fresh fish shops. Today we bought new season prawns and Spanish Mackerel straight off the trawler ( it looks nothing like our Mackerel). Prawns like mini lobsters or fat wichety grubs, so delicious and filling we didn’t cook the Mackerel. All we need now is  a couple of weeks veggie packing and we could be living like millionaires!