Hey everyone

Today we explored Bowen!

We woke up, had breakfast, showered and did another load of washing before taking the hostel's free bus to the beaches at 11am. The bus took us to Horseshoe Bay, a lovely little beach surrounded by huge boulders either side that strutted out into the sea (hence the name). We were told there was coral reef just off the beach but without our stinger suits and it still being jellyfish season we decided we wouldn't risk it this time.

Christina settled down under the shade of a tree to read her book and Alex went to explore over the rocks where he saw crabs and fish and weird looking things swimming in the rock pools.

We moved further up the beach to the grassy banks and sat and had our lunch. Christina had a lie down enjoying the sea breeze, a watching the random peacock on the beach, while Alex went exploring again, this time up through the trees to a lookout, high above the beach. Here he had an amazing view over the surrounding beaches, with islands and mountains in the distance.

We were picked up and taken back to the hostel and after quick showers and re-applying suncream we went out to take pictures of Bowen, and in particular the set of Australia. A few photos later and after realising without the sea breeze the heat is unbearable, we went back to our lovely air conditioned (and fridge-like) room. After dinner and a film we went to bed, only to realise that we had a lot of packing to do so that we were ready to move out and go to Magnetic Island tomorrow morning. Xxx