As has happened on numerous occasions as we traipse around this great country of ours, our visit to Bowen served to remind us of just how lucky we who choose to make South Australia our home can be. Here this jolt of reality came in the shape of the Bowen beaches.
Let me quote directly from The Bowen and Collinsville Tourist Guide and Holiday Planner 2107/2018 which proudly boasts:
"Bowen's claim to fame is its beautiful array of pristine beaches. Each beach has its own charm......."
The glossy photos in this very well produced magazine do indeed support the suggestion that here in Bowen the eager tourist will find seaside paradise. Let me share with you the reality of what we discovered, beginning close to our selected caravan park at Queens Beach.
We were less than 500 metres from the beach itself. The road to it brought us initially through this parking area
from which a foreshore walkway through a coastal reserve provided access to the beach.
It was here that the residual effect of some of Cyclone Debbie's destructive winds was still clearly evident, despite the sterling job which had been done by both local authorities and Bowen residents alike in clearing away the debris.
Every single branch on this proudly spreading shade tree had been lopped and, as you can see, it is almost completely devoid of what is normally dense, dark green foliage. But one of the great advantages of the climate in this part of the world is the speed with which things grow. Significant regrowth was already evident. A local told us that this tree should be back to its full leafy glory within six months. I hope he is right!
The path to Queens Beach took us past the unpretentious building which houses the equipment and members of the Bowen Surf Lifesaving Club
separated from the sands of Queens Beach by another pathway and strips of lawn.
And here it is, the first of 'our Bowen Beaches'....purportedly one of the finest, Queens Beach, here looking to the north-west towards the not too distant mouth of the River Don
and here stretching away in the opposite direction.
It is a little difficult to know exactly where Queens Beach ends. On all the charts it sort of 'morphs' into the un-named beach along Queens Bay, but irrespective of formal titles, it is fair to say that one can ramble along the foreshore here for quite a few kilometres all the way around to Cape Edgecumbe.
One of the real features of the Queens Bay area is the Bowen golf course where I took a quick exploratory detour whilst on this journey of discovery.
Before wandering down the entrance driveway to take a look at the course and club-house, I was more than amused to read the advertising hoarding on the course, or at least the chalked notice.
Meals for $5,000? Obviously this refers to the prize for the Joker Draw, but this was not the way it read....very poor sign editing I thought!
The beautifully maintained fairways and greens of this links course stretch out east and west between one of Bowen's major commuter roads and the foreshore.
The large clubhouse and the nearby practice greens were hives of activity. Golf is big in Bowen.
The far end of the course provided me with a good view east along the edge of Queens Bay and to the foreshore cabins of another of Bowen's caravan parks, one which dodged a 'Debbie bullet'.
The Coral Coast Holiday Park, which makes much of its location right on 'the beach' at Queens Bay, was fenced off to through foot traffic.
A closer inspection of the foreshore immediately below the park frontage showed why. The Queens Bay beach no longer existed, well as far as sand went....
...in both directions.
We later gained another perspective of this stretch of the foreshore looking across Queens Bay from Grays Bay beach. Is it any wonder that the owners of this park have been advertising like mad that they are indeed open for business and would appreciate custom. Fine, but don't come for the beach!
By now we had travelled along Horseshoe Bay Road to Grays Bay and the first of the beaches on the western side of the Cape Edgecumbe peninsular. We were initially a little surprised by the size of the car park here, but the reason soon became evident.
A boat ramp at one end of the boulder strewn beach facilitates small boat launching and retrieval, with it and the short curved beach all lying under the watchful eye of the resort complex on the hill at the northern end of the beach.
From this vantage point we could also look back along the far eastern end of the Queens Bay beach.
Another perspective of this scene came into view as we left Grays Bay and climbed out along the roadway to the other side of the tip of the Cape, en route to one of Bowen's most vaunted beach locations, Horseshoe Bay.
This area is home to anther of Bowen's many caravan parks, one which good travelling friends of ours had highly recommended. As we drove past the park entrance with its sign proclaiming this to the the Horseshoe Bay Resort,
and then took a closer look at the sites,
the office area,
and the row of cabins along the roadway, the use of the word 'resort' seemed to us to be somewhat fanciful.
The narrow road to the beach (where the locals park where ever they can irrespective of the control signs)
ends in a smallish car park
which directly overlooks the beach.
This beach, I will concede, showed more promise than the others we had seen to date
but even here the sand was dark and gritty, a product of the grey granite rock from which it evolved.
What a far cry this is from fine, soft, yellow sands of it's namesake beach at Port Elliot on the coast south of Adelaide, but in fairness, I must add that at least here in Bowen at this time of the year the temperature was a good 10-15 degrees warmer.
And again for the sake of balance, I have to comment that beyond the shore break of Bowen's Horseshoe Bay, those equipped with snorkels and the desire to do so, can laze languidly over colourful corals, something completely lacking around SA waters.
Another attraction of this Bowen beach can be seen looking back across the car park.
The cafe and 'Summergarden Theatre' here on Cape Edgecumbe attract constant patronage, both visitors and locals alike, but from what we saw, it was all very 'close'.
We were actually quite happy to leave the clutter of Horseshoe Bay and backtrack south along the peninsular to the junction of Rose Bay Road which took us through another of the mangrove flats which separate many of Bowen's built up areas.
We soon found ourselves entering the 'enclave' suburb of Rose Bay
where the road took us past another caravan park over the entrance to which I was amazed to see the UN flag flying.
A bit of a nose around and a couple of discreet enquiries soon solved this apparent mystery. The Rose Bay Caravan Park is devoted to the accommodation of Bowen backpackers, most of whom arrive here from various countries all over the world...hence the flag. And frankly, what we saw over the fence was enough for us to immediately scrub this park off our list of Bowen accommodation alternatives!
The Rose Bay foreshore is actually home to two Bowen beaches, Rose Bay itself and the northern head of the long Kings Beach,
a strip of seaweed strewn sand which extends several kilometres from here all the way south to the base of Flagstaff Hill, home to the first lookout we visited some days ago.
Here we found another of Bowen's resort complexes, nestled right above the small cove of Rose Bay under the craggy hillside beyond.
And the guests here do have a view
directly over the sands of the cove to the waters of the Coral Sea beyond
with the bulk of Gloucester Island as a back drop.
On our arrival here it was immediately evident that Rose Bay and Horseshoe Bay are poles apart in respect of the patronage they attract. After the hub-bub of the latter, with its clutter of decrepit bongo vans and whizzbangs in the car park and scruffy looking backpacker types spread all across the sands and lounging in the cafe, Rose Bay was a haven of tranquillity. But we did decide this probably came at a cost!
For us, if we were in the market for a resort holiday, it would be very much a case of 'hang the expense'....it's Rose Bay or nothing!
And on that note we completed the circuit of the Bowen beaches. As I said before dear readers, I'll let you be the judges. I suspect our views are as crystal clear as the waters of the Coral Sea which lap against them.
Let me quote directly from The Bowen and Collinsville Tourist Guide and Holiday Planner 2107/2018 which proudly boasts:
"Bowen's claim to fame is its beautiful array of pristine beaches. Each beach has its own charm......."
The glossy photos in this very well produced magazine do indeed support the suggestion that here in Bowen the eager tourist will find seaside paradise. Let me share with you the reality of what we discovered, beginning close to our selected caravan park at Queens Beach.
We were less than 500 metres from the beach itself. The road to it brought us initially through this parking area
from which a foreshore walkway through a coastal reserve provided access to the beach.
It was here that the residual effect of some of Cyclone Debbie's destructive winds was still clearly evident, despite the sterling job which had been done by both local authorities and Bowen residents alike in clearing away the debris.
Every single branch on this proudly spreading shade tree had been lopped and, as you can see, it is almost completely devoid of what is normally dense, dark green foliage. But one of the great advantages of the climate in this part of the world is the speed with which things grow. Significant regrowth was already evident. A local told us that this tree should be back to its full leafy glory within six months. I hope he is right!
The path to Queens Beach took us past the unpretentious building which houses the equipment and members of the Bowen Surf Lifesaving Club
separated from the sands of Queens Beach by another pathway and strips of lawn.
And here it is, the first of 'our Bowen Beaches'....purportedly one of the finest, Queens Beach, here looking to the north-west towards the not too distant mouth of the River Don
and here stretching away in the opposite direction.
It is a little difficult to know exactly where Queens Beach ends. On all the charts it sort of 'morphs' into the un-named beach along Queens Bay, but irrespective of formal titles, it is fair to say that one can ramble along the foreshore here for quite a few kilometres all the way around to Cape Edgecumbe.
One of the real features of the Queens Bay area is the Bowen golf course where I took a quick exploratory detour whilst on this journey of discovery.
Before wandering down the entrance driveway to take a look at the course and club-house, I was more than amused to read the advertising hoarding on the course, or at least the chalked notice.
Meals for $5,000? Obviously this refers to the prize for the Joker Draw, but this was not the way it read....very poor sign editing I thought!
The beautifully maintained fairways and greens of this links course stretch out east and west between one of Bowen's major commuter roads and the foreshore.
The large clubhouse and the nearby practice greens were hives of activity. Golf is big in Bowen.
The far end of the course provided me with a good view east along the edge of Queens Bay and to the foreshore cabins of another of Bowen's caravan parks, one which dodged a 'Debbie bullet'.
The Coral Coast Holiday Park, which makes much of its location right on 'the beach' at Queens Bay, was fenced off to through foot traffic.
A closer inspection of the foreshore immediately below the park frontage showed why. The Queens Bay beach no longer existed, well as far as sand went....
...in both directions.
We later gained another perspective of this stretch of the foreshore looking across Queens Bay from Grays Bay beach. Is it any wonder that the owners of this park have been advertising like mad that they are indeed open for business and would appreciate custom. Fine, but don't come for the beach!
By now we had travelled along Horseshoe Bay Road to Grays Bay and the first of the beaches on the western side of the Cape Edgecumbe peninsular. We were initially a little surprised by the size of the car park here, but the reason soon became evident.
A boat ramp at one end of the boulder strewn beach facilitates small boat launching and retrieval, with it and the short curved beach all lying under the watchful eye of the resort complex on the hill at the northern end of the beach.
From this vantage point we could also look back along the far eastern end of the Queens Bay beach.
Another perspective of this scene came into view as we left Grays Bay and climbed out along the roadway to the other side of the tip of the Cape, en route to one of Bowen's most vaunted beach locations, Horseshoe Bay.
This area is home to anther of Bowen's many caravan parks, one which good travelling friends of ours had highly recommended. As we drove past the park entrance with its sign proclaiming this to the the Horseshoe Bay Resort,
and then took a closer look at the sites,
the office area,
and the row of cabins along the roadway, the use of the word 'resort' seemed to us to be somewhat fanciful.
The narrow road to the beach (where the locals park where ever they can irrespective of the control signs)
ends in a smallish car park
which directly overlooks the beach.
This beach, I will concede, showed more promise than the others we had seen to date
but even here the sand was dark and gritty, a product of the grey granite rock from which it evolved.
What a far cry this is from fine, soft, yellow sands of it's namesake beach at Port Elliot on the coast south of Adelaide, but in fairness, I must add that at least here in Bowen at this time of the year the temperature was a good 10-15 degrees warmer.
And again for the sake of balance, I have to comment that beyond the shore break of Bowen's Horseshoe Bay, those equipped with snorkels and the desire to do so, can laze languidly over colourful corals, something completely lacking around SA waters.
Another attraction of this Bowen beach can be seen looking back across the car park.
The cafe and 'Summergarden Theatre' here on Cape Edgecumbe attract constant patronage, both visitors and locals alike, but from what we saw, it was all very 'close'.
We were actually quite happy to leave the clutter of Horseshoe Bay and backtrack south along the peninsular to the junction of Rose Bay Road which took us through another of the mangrove flats which separate many of Bowen's built up areas.
We soon found ourselves entering the 'enclave' suburb of Rose Bay
where the road took us past another caravan park over the entrance to which I was amazed to see the UN flag flying.
A bit of a nose around and a couple of discreet enquiries soon solved this apparent mystery. The Rose Bay Caravan Park is devoted to the accommodation of Bowen backpackers, most of whom arrive here from various countries all over the world...hence the flag. And frankly, what we saw over the fence was enough for us to immediately scrub this park off our list of Bowen accommodation alternatives!
The Rose Bay foreshore is actually home to two Bowen beaches, Rose Bay itself and the northern head of the long Kings Beach,
a strip of seaweed strewn sand which extends several kilometres from here all the way south to the base of Flagstaff Hill, home to the first lookout we visited some days ago.
We found nothing here to cause our visiting hearts to beat a little faster nor create a desire for further exploration, so it was off to Rose Bay itself, the last beach on our list.
Here we found another of Bowen's resort complexes, nestled right above the small cove of Rose Bay under the craggy hillside beyond.
And the guests here do have a view
directly over the sands of the cove to the waters of the Coral Sea beyond
with the bulk of Gloucester Island as a back drop.
On our arrival here it was immediately evident that Rose Bay and Horseshoe Bay are poles apart in respect of the patronage they attract. After the hub-bub of the latter, with its clutter of decrepit bongo vans and whizzbangs in the car park and scruffy looking backpacker types spread all across the sands and lounging in the cafe, Rose Bay was a haven of tranquillity. But we did decide this probably came at a cost!
For us, if we were in the market for a resort holiday, it would be very much a case of 'hang the expense'....it's Rose Bay or nothing!
And on that note we completed the circuit of the Bowen beaches. As I said before dear readers, I'll let you be the judges. I suspect our views are as crystal clear as the waters of the Coral Sea which lap against them.
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