Bowen to Rockhampton

March 15: The drive to Bowen was lovely and although we couldn't see the Coral Sea, we travelled through beautiful tree covered slopes and sugar cane fields.

We had intended to press on to Airlie Beach for the night however a stop at the Bowen Information Centre and advice to see the town of Bowen interested us enough to explore and spend the night there.


The answer to your question is; it's a giant mango (outside the Bowen Information Centre)


Driving directly to the Big 4 Campground, we were delighted to see that the sites were above a breakwall, directly over the sea. The breezes were fantastic and the view even more fantastic.

Bowen looks like Darwin did prior to Cyclone Tracy since all original buildings were blown away in that horrific 1975 event, Bowen will stand in for Darwin in a film commencing filming next month and starring Nicole Kidman. Everyone in town is extremely excited and the campground is adding several buildings to house crew. They will be booked out for the duration of the filming.

While visiting the Information Centre, we booked our sailing voyage on the Enid, a 70 foot vessel that sails out of Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays. We discovered that several of the most popular options were completely booked; a huge surprise since nothing we'd encountered thus far had been unavailable. The Enid had originally been built in the '60's for racing in the Sydney/Hobart Boxing Day Race and was built completely of timber. We were extremely excited to be spending three days on the water.

March 16: Airlie Beach was for once, exactly as we imagined it to be....a small town on the sea, packed with backpackers, shops and restaurants. Our Big 4 campground was spectacular and the water in the pool was cool; a rarity in Australia. Three times a week, a chef caters dinner at the camp and we decided that we should try it out. It was fantastic! So delicious that the experience almost caused me to have our kitchen converted into a den and have catered dinners for the rest of our lives.


Photo's: Regular visitors at the Airlie Beach campground....our favourite Kukabera; Goanna

Having been told to check into the sailing office upon our arrival, we did so only to discover that Enid had only three passengers booked. They would not sail with less than 12 and they asked us to check in with them again on Sunday (day before departure) and they would let us know which sailboat we'd be on. On Sunday we visited them again and were told it would be the Alexander Stewart, a 71 foot sailboat built by three generations of the Stewart family over 17 years. It was patterned after an 1800's vessel sailed by Joshua Slocum, an explorer and adventurer. They used Noumean Kauri, Ribbon Maple, Red Cedar, Silky Oak, Tasmanian Blackwood and Oregon timbers to build this beautiful boat and they even forged their own hardware. It seems that not a detail was overlooked (which you'd expect when it took 17 years to build her). The Stewart family still owns the boat and lease it to a company that sails it six days of the week.


Photo: The Alexander Stewart

There were 17 passengers and three crew and we departed at 9 am. Our cabin was in the stern, right beside the galley which proved to be an advantage with the heat. At night, we opened the galley portholes and our portholes and had a magnificent breeze. Our captain Craig, "deckie" Nathan and chef Jenny provided us with the most wonderful three days on the sea. Craig has sailed from the Solomon Islands to Australia and has been a pilot on the Sydney Harbour Ferries....loads of experience on sailing and power vessels. Bob found his spot at the stern with the captain and they became instant friends. The food was out of this world and the passengers were from Germany, Ireland, Canada (4 of us) and England.

We sailed around the Whitsunday islands, stopping for snorkelling, hikes and swimming at Whitehaven Beach; a beautiful white sandy beach that is known around the world for the turquoise water and pristine beach. The silica sand is so fine you can polish your glasses with it. There were moorings at several locations for snorkelling and anchorages each night. The crew slept up on deck on their swags and under a tent-like awning. We all helped to man the lines and do some crewing. A few passengers had some sea-sickness however "no drama" as they say here...in other words....nothing to clean up!


Photo's: Guest crew members; deckie Guy; Deckie Sharon and First Mate Roberto; hoisting the sail; beautiful Whitehaven Beach


Bob and I spent much time with Craig and found him to be incredibly knowledgeable on world news, environmental issues in Australia and everywhere else. He appeared to be so quiet and almost reserved (described himself as not being a people person) however once the door was unlocked, he became a fountain of information and was a very friendly guy.

Returning to Airlie Port on the 21st, Craig informed us that we would all be treated to a party at Beaches Pub that evening. It was a blast and neat to see how we all cleaned up real good!!




Photo's: Cutie "deckie" Nathan and friends; (L to R) Drew (Dublin), Cap'n Craig, Murray (Canada); Bob, Tom and Susy (England); Hugging Honkers, Murray and Sharon

March 22/23: We are in a lovely town...Rockhampton...a town of 60,000 people; so lovely that we decided to stay here for a couple of days. The downtown core is filled with Louisiana style buildings that overlook the Fitzroy River. Tomorrow we drift on down the coast toward Brisbane. Still much to do and about two days per town. Me thinks we've done a pretty special job of allocating our time around this vast land.

Hugs to everyone! Thanks for watching!
Sharon