Sept 19 ... Airlie Beach

Garry's Birthday.
No presents this year but Morgan has given him some money to pay for a trip out to Whitehaven Beach so he was not totally forgotten, and he got lots of phone calls.
Our day started with Shopping! Mainly groceries and a few things we needed for the van, then we were on the road, albeit a little later than planned.  Just south we had a good view of some of the fires that have been creating the smoke haze of the past weeks. Fires are a bit of a problem all over the state at the moment.

Bushfires in the hills

It started as a visually dry and scrubby drive to Ayr but pretty soon we were in canefields and vege gardens. There are so many rivers in this area that it must be good land to farm. Ayr was a surprisingly large and pleasant looking town. We found a really nice park for a morning tea with "birthday cake" ... blueberry and white chocolate scones !! Between Ayr and Home Hill is the Burdekin Bridge, more than 1 kilometre long. I am very impressed with the Burdekin River as it is massive. It must be amazing and scary in full flood, very similar in power to the rivers of the Far North like the Fitzroy. The bridge design was something quite different to the usual and really interesting.

The Burdekin River Bridge

The Burdekin River

We actually had a lot further to drive today than Garry had mentally calculated, and there were a lot of roadworks, so we were fairly late getting into Bowen where we had planned to have lunch at the cafe on Flagstaff Hill. But, at 2.10pm, the kitchen was closed and we were disappointed. The views from this lookout are superb and we had a perfect day to enjoy them, so we had a good look around and added it to our list of Top 10 Lookouts in Australia.

North Head Island

Bowen

Kings Beach/ Rose Bay

View towards Cape Gloucester

Moving on to Plan B we stopped by the harbour in Bowen and picked up some fresh prawns and oysters for lunch. The oysters (from NZ !!) were frozen so Garry had to "settle" for prawns for lunch in the parkland on the water. It was a lovely setting and we finally enjoyed our meal at 3.15pm !

Birthday Lunch of prawns

Boat Harbour / Front Beach Bowen

We still had a way to go as we were booked at Airlie. I did this because of the school holidays but had we not had the commitment, we would have stopped at Bowen. It seems crazy to be moving so fast but it is really hard to gauge when you are planning to secure a booking. Anyway, we arrived in time to check in, change our site and get tickets for tomorrows trip to Whitehaven Beach. This is a lovely park, about 2 kms from town and, co-incidentally, we had stopped here 18 years ago when we met Maurn and PaF here for our "Reef" holiday when the kids were small. On that visit it rained every day and Dad was a lifesaver with his sense of enjoyment, enthusiasm and optimism. We all had a great time and now we have many happy memories of that holiday.
On arrival we were greeted by a large number of curlews. I really enjoy these birds but they have an ear-piercing scream and I was glad that they were quiet in the nightime. Garry finally got to enjoy his oysters for tea and I think he had a pleasant day.

Curlews at Airlie

Our welcome committee

Oysters for his Birthday Tea