We had driven past Bowen on many previous occasions. Now it was time to pull in and and look around.
The Queens Beach Caravan Park. "It's the only place to stay", was the repeated cry from all we know who have spent time in Bowen. Our booking had been duly made. Seven days to see if the park lived up to all the hype and what the the town itself had to offer passing knights of the road.
The 245 kilometre leg from Koumala to Bowen took us north through Sarina, and past Mackay and Proserpine. Accordingly to all the reports and the TV news vision, poor old Proserpine had not fared well at the hands of Cyclone Debbie. We know this area well, and were very interested to see the extent of the residual damage.
To our surprise, there was remarkably little to show for this outbreak of nature's fury. Stripped roadside trees,
a deal of water still lying in the lower portions of the cane fields
and a few wrecked cane farm sheds were about all that was on show along the highway itself.
We did pop into Proserpine briefly, and there was no doubting the scale of the clean-up, but we were not greeted with the apocalyptic scenes we had expected. Mind you, later reports from fellow travellers who had ventured over to the nearby coast at Airlie Beach, told tales of massive damage to both the tropical vegetation and many of the town's buildings.
Bowen itself was another town which had featured large in the reports of significant wind and water damage. Just what would we find, was the question on our minds as we approached.
The short answer was, from what we saw as we made our way to our chosen park, very little. There was certainly evidence of infrastructure damage, and as I shall share with you later, many of the more exposed beachfront trees had not fared well, but by and large all seemed relatively normal.
For now though it was time to settle in and make ourselves comfortable. Apart from the question of cyclone damage in the town, the other at the forefront of our thinking as we made our final approach
and took our place in the arrival queue
was the obvious.....would the Queens Beach Caravan Park live up to all we had been told about it? We had been given a mental picture of beautiful gardens, large sites, lush lawns, shade and good amenities.
As we made our past the park pool opposite the office,
through the entrance boom gate and along the very narrow road past some of the quite up-market park cabins, all we saw showed distinct promise.
We had been allocated a site towards the other side of this quite large park, one we were assured would more than accommodate a van of our size.
On we toddled, past more lawned areas
until we reached the end of this first roadway where a right turn took us along the back road, past the colourful drum which indicated the exit road (this is a very sensible one-way system)
and a few of the more permanent park settlers.
By now we were gaining a good impression of the tenor of this park and it was all positive.
Another right hand turn and we were on the approach to our residential plot for the next week (you can just see the rear of the Cruiser on the right).
At this point I must note that the narrow park roadways do present something of a challenge in setting a rig of our size on site, and of course, as we lined up, all and sundry in nearby vans suddenly found that they had things to do outside. After surveying our options, including the proximity of surrounding vehicles and the site hedges, I decided to go around and make our approach from the other direction, something which later drew the acclaim of one of those (not) watching who was honest enough to admit he thought he might be in for some real entertainment!
So finally, after some creative manoeuvring, here we were. We could not have been more pleased. Lawn, and good lawn at that, everywhere we looked.
Delightful gardens, behind us and on both sides, created a wonderful feeling of privacy. To date Queens Beach was more than living up to all we had been told.
At the end of our site roadway stood the very large camp kitchen.
Its cavernous interior was well utilised by many but on this occasion not by us. It soon became apparent that a large proportion of our neighbours were here for 'the season' and were all well known to each other. Card sessions, craft mornings and the collective solving of large jigsaw puzzles, not to mention somewhat 'exclusive' (and oddly gender segregated) happy hours were the norm.
I have little doubt that we would have been welcomed into the throng had we meandered along at the appointed hour, libations in hand, but as it transpired, we were often out and about in the late afternoon. Apart from this we struck up a very friendly relationship with one of our immediate neighbours quite early in the piece which more than satisfied our need for social contact.
At the far side of the camp kitchen a walkway led to one of the two amenities blocks which were both quite close to our site.
This leads me to comment about this very welcome facility here at Queens Beach, one which should be featured in far more parks around the country.....the walkways (here is that leading to the other heads).
Each pathway, which provides easy access from one section of the park to another throughout, was well surfaced and lined with shrubs or trees.
These are here for a reason and the signs dotted all around the park encourage their use. Bugger the safety....its the privacy. Here there can be no excuse for anyone to wander cross country through the park invading the personal site space of others.
Mind you, having said that, the very layout of the extensive gardens in this park, which virtually surround three sides of most of the sites, does tend to discourage this form of antisocial park behaviour, but these paths and the signs add a layer of certainty of expectation. Bravo Queens Beach!
And now to the amenities. The neat exterior of that which I chose to use does not do justice to the quality of the interior.
Newly re-tiled and fitted out, and kept spotlessly clean, each element of these facilities is more than fit for purpose and whilst we have learnt to cope with almost anything in terms of aimntaining our personal hygiene, walking into a bathroom which would not be out of place in a new home is a real treat.
In addition to the varying sized slab sites, the Queens Beach park also offers grassed drive-thu's
and, here in the back corner of the park, a couple of the largest sites we have ever come across......just to spot for those who arrive with truck, van and boat to set up for the duration.
We were more than pleased to discover that, whilst there was some residual evidence of the ravages of Debbie, such as the repairs being undertaken along this fence line, and a few of the larger park trees were looking seriously the worse for wear, the general state of the gardens was excellent. These had been one of the main reasons we had chosen to stay here and we were not disappointed.
Needless to say, we made the most of it, well during the first few days at least, when cloudless skies and warm balmy weather almost demanded that we relax outdoors in our private garden.
As for the Black Panther......he was in feline heaven. Give Max a long lead and a nearby garden bed and he will remain entertained for hours. I am sure that tiny skinks and other small denizens of the undergrowth assume gigantic proportions in his imagination. Every so often the snap of the lead at full extension and a mad pounce into the bushes indicated that he had spied a quarry.....they all remained safe.....as I have noted before, Max would starve in the wild!
Going hungry is something which will never happen whilst he is part of team Mobile Marshies. His love of cheese, bread and particularly those ubiquitous accompaniments to any happy hour, potato chips and savoury shapes, has convinced us that he has never forgotten his struggle for survival in the bush alongside the River Murray in the days before we found the poor little mite and rescued him from his abandonment.
As you may have gathered we did enjoy our stay here, perhaps a little less when the weather turned. We had heard of the reference to 'Blowin Bowen', and a few days into our stay this became a reality. Up went the bracing poles and over went the awning tie down strap as we hunkered down for a couple of days of a pretty serious shunt.
But then, as always, the weather moderated, Mother Nature apologised for her bad manners with a few spectacular sunsets,
and we resumed making the most of our delightful surroundings.
The Queens Beach Caravan Park, whilst not right on the shore as others are (it is some 600 metres of so from the bay), certainly more than met the standard we had been told to expect. This remains one of the most charming and well set out parks in which we have ever pitched our tent. Our thanks go to all who recommended it to us. We shall have no hesitation in now doing the same.
To our surprise, there was remarkably little to show for this outbreak of nature's fury. Stripped roadside trees,
a deal of water still lying in the lower portions of the cane fields
and a few wrecked cane farm sheds were about all that was on show along the highway itself.
We did pop into Proserpine briefly, and there was no doubting the scale of the clean-up, but we were not greeted with the apocalyptic scenes we had expected. Mind you, later reports from fellow travellers who had ventured over to the nearby coast at Airlie Beach, told tales of massive damage to both the tropical vegetation and many of the town's buildings.
Bowen itself was another town which had featured large in the reports of significant wind and water damage. Just what would we find, was the question on our minds as we approached.
The short answer was, from what we saw as we made our way to our chosen park, very little. There was certainly evidence of infrastructure damage, and as I shall share with you later, many of the more exposed beachfront trees had not fared well, but by and large all seemed relatively normal.
For now though it was time to settle in and make ourselves comfortable. Apart from the question of cyclone damage in the town, the other at the forefront of our thinking as we made our final approach
and took our place in the arrival queue
was the obvious.....would the Queens Beach Caravan Park live up to all we had been told about it? We had been given a mental picture of beautiful gardens, large sites, lush lawns, shade and good amenities.
As we made our past the park pool opposite the office,
through the entrance boom gate and along the very narrow road past some of the quite up-market park cabins, all we saw showed distinct promise.
We had been allocated a site towards the other side of this quite large park, one we were assured would more than accommodate a van of our size.
On we toddled, past more lawned areas
until we reached the end of this first roadway where a right turn took us along the back road, past the colourful drum which indicated the exit road (this is a very sensible one-way system)
and a few of the more permanent park settlers.
By now we were gaining a good impression of the tenor of this park and it was all positive.
Another right hand turn and we were on the approach to our residential plot for the next week (you can just see the rear of the Cruiser on the right).
At this point I must note that the narrow park roadways do present something of a challenge in setting a rig of our size on site, and of course, as we lined up, all and sundry in nearby vans suddenly found that they had things to do outside. After surveying our options, including the proximity of surrounding vehicles and the site hedges, I decided to go around and make our approach from the other direction, something which later drew the acclaim of one of those (not) watching who was honest enough to admit he thought he might be in for some real entertainment!
So finally, after some creative manoeuvring, here we were. We could not have been more pleased. Lawn, and good lawn at that, everywhere we looked.
Delightful gardens, behind us and on both sides, created a wonderful feeling of privacy. To date Queens Beach was more than living up to all we had been told.
At the end of our site roadway stood the very large camp kitchen.
Its cavernous interior was well utilised by many but on this occasion not by us. It soon became apparent that a large proportion of our neighbours were here for 'the season' and were all well known to each other. Card sessions, craft mornings and the collective solving of large jigsaw puzzles, not to mention somewhat 'exclusive' (and oddly gender segregated) happy hours were the norm.
I have little doubt that we would have been welcomed into the throng had we meandered along at the appointed hour, libations in hand, but as it transpired, we were often out and about in the late afternoon. Apart from this we struck up a very friendly relationship with one of our immediate neighbours quite early in the piece which more than satisfied our need for social contact.
At the far side of the camp kitchen a walkway led to one of the two amenities blocks which were both quite close to our site.
This leads me to comment about this very welcome facility here at Queens Beach, one which should be featured in far more parks around the country.....the walkways (here is that leading to the other heads).
Each pathway, which provides easy access from one section of the park to another throughout, was well surfaced and lined with shrubs or trees.
These are here for a reason and the signs dotted all around the park encourage their use. Bugger the safety....its the privacy. Here there can be no excuse for anyone to wander cross country through the park invading the personal site space of others.
Mind you, having said that, the very layout of the extensive gardens in this park, which virtually surround three sides of most of the sites, does tend to discourage this form of antisocial park behaviour, but these paths and the signs add a layer of certainty of expectation. Bravo Queens Beach!
And now to the amenities. The neat exterior of that which I chose to use does not do justice to the quality of the interior.
Newly re-tiled and fitted out, and kept spotlessly clean, each element of these facilities is more than fit for purpose and whilst we have learnt to cope with almost anything in terms of aimntaining our personal hygiene, walking into a bathroom which would not be out of place in a new home is a real treat.
In addition to the varying sized slab sites, the Queens Beach park also offers grassed drive-thu's
and, here in the back corner of the park, a couple of the largest sites we have ever come across......just to spot for those who arrive with truck, van and boat to set up for the duration.
We were more than pleased to discover that, whilst there was some residual evidence of the ravages of Debbie, such as the repairs being undertaken along this fence line, and a few of the larger park trees were looking seriously the worse for wear, the general state of the gardens was excellent. These had been one of the main reasons we had chosen to stay here and we were not disappointed.
Needless to say, we made the most of it, well during the first few days at least, when cloudless skies and warm balmy weather almost demanded that we relax outdoors in our private garden.
Going hungry is something which will never happen whilst he is part of team Mobile Marshies. His love of cheese, bread and particularly those ubiquitous accompaniments to any happy hour, potato chips and savoury shapes, has convinced us that he has never forgotten his struggle for survival in the bush alongside the River Murray in the days before we found the poor little mite and rescued him from his abandonment.
As you may have gathered we did enjoy our stay here, perhaps a little less when the weather turned. We had heard of the reference to 'Blowin Bowen', and a few days into our stay this became a reality. Up went the bracing poles and over went the awning tie down strap as we hunkered down for a couple of days of a pretty serious shunt.
But then, as always, the weather moderated, Mother Nature apologised for her bad manners with a few spectacular sunsets,
and we resumed making the most of our delightful surroundings.
The Queens Beach Caravan Park, whilst not right on the shore as others are (it is some 600 metres of so from the bay), certainly more than met the standard we had been told to expect. This remains one of the most charming and well set out parks in which we have ever pitched our tent. Our thanks go to all who recommended it to us. We shall have no hesitation in now doing the same.
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