Letho's Blog

July 26-27, 2011

In Bowen we underwent two premieres: the first being us the first couchsurfers for our host, the second one for us staying with a genuine mayor! Our host was actually the mayor of Bowen and the Whitsundays. Isn’t CouchSurfing incredible?

Our house was nicely located at Rose Bay with a great view onto the sea:

We spent a lot of time at the local tourist information center. Not that the Big Mango (another one of Australia’s big things, yay!) was so fascinating, but we did some profund research on when and what type of Whitsunday sailing trip to book for the upcoming days.

But of course we posed at the Big Mango:

The Bowen region produces most of Australia’s mango fruit. However, this big thing does not remind you very much of a mango, I reckon?

Thankfully our host took us on a tour through Bowen, providing us with lots of local knowledge about the region and its history. Did you know that Bowen was supposed to be Queensland capital city a 150 years ago? Well, we all know that Brisbane made it in the end. But did you know that large parts of the Hollywood movie “Australia” were filmed in Bowen? I bet you didn’t!

Bowen has a big tourism industry, lots of retirees (called “Grey Nomads”) come here from the southern regions of Australia with their trailers and stay for the whole and nice Queensland winter. This view shows you why that is so:

In the evening we took the great two dogs for a walk to Rose Bay, just a few minutes away – what a life!

The next day we said goodbye to the little furry fellows ..

.. and walked up to Mother Beddock, a rock formation overlooking Rose Bay.

We were not the only ones on the lookout:

Not far from that was Murray Bay ..

and Horseshoe Bay. Enjoy this nice panorama:

Time to say goodbye to Bowen, and on our way to Airlie Beach we were!