Bowen

 5 - 6 September 2025

After a quick over-nighter at Cowley Beach we returned to the Bruce Highway and our journey south. We stopped for fuel in Cardwell and then drove to Jourama Falls Day Use Area in the Paluma Range National Park, for morning tea and a spot of birding. There were lots of cars there but we managed to find a place to park the camper trailer, not far from one of a number of picnic shelters.

Once we left Jourama Falls, we knew that we would need to find a lunch stop before we reached Townsville. We found a new rest area just north of Bluewater and had our picnic there. It was nothing flash, but did the job. We drove through Townsville on the Ring Road for the very first time. We have entered or exited Townsville that way many times, but this was the first time using it as a by-pass. It is an excellent way to get through the city without having to tangle with traffic.

Once through Townsville we were confident that we could make it to Sarina for the night - until we reached Bowen and saw the illluminated sign on the south side of town indicating that the highway was closed between Bowen and Sarina. I checked the Queensland Traffic app and saw that there had been a serious crash and the road would be closed for some time. As it was already after 3:00pm we decided it would be unwise to wait and started calling caravan parks to see if we could get a spot. In peak tourist season most parks were full but we did get a site at one near the harbour. We'd stayed there before so were happy that it was in a good location.

As it was Friday, and as our plans had been rail-roaded, we treated ourselves to dinner at the pub. The Grand View Hotel is a short walk from the caravan park and serves very nice meals. There was rain about but it didn't eventuate in our location so we were able to enjoy a leisurely stroll to the pub and back.

We made the most of our unexpected stopover

We set off early the next morning, hoping to get to somewhere around Rockhampton.