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Next stop heading south was the town of Bowen which you need to turn off the highway to go to. We have bypassed the town on our two previous trips so decided to call in this time. It's a really nice seaside town of about 11,000 people and we found a quiet motor camp right on the seashore. Next morning after a good drive about the town looking at all the lovely beaches and going up to the town lookout which had fantastic views we found ANOTHER BEST PIES IN AUSTRALIA BAKERY! to visit for lunch. Then as it was a seaside town a visit to a seafood shop on the wharf for some prawns and squid seemed like a good idea.
We then headed South again to an old favourite place of ours Airlie Beach. As the weather was still very warm and calm we decided to book an all day 'Three Island' snorkel and cruise trip out in the famous Whitsunday's. It was one of those 6 am rises with the bus picking us up at the camp gate at 7am! The 90 minute trip out to Whitsunday Island was a breeze in calm conditions in the big cat. After anchoring in a sheltered bay where you could see large turtles swimming about they shuttled everyone to shore in a small inflatable where we climbed a track that overlooked the beach on the other side of the Island. Wow the view from the lookout is awesome and then it was a easy walk down to the main beach where many other people from all the other travel companies and private boats were enjoying swimming and walking on the world renowned Whitsunday beach. It's super white pure silica sand is like walking on icing sugar and your feet make a squeaking sound. Even though this is a World Heritage Site from which nothing can be removed they were able to use some of this very rare sand to make the Hubble space telescope lens! The only bad thing about the place was someone had half buried a disposable nappy in the sand can you believe it some people. The next stop was at a reef beside Hayman Island where we were again shuttled to shore to snorkel directly off the beach.This was the best snorkel that Steph has ever had over a reef that was just teeming with colourful fish of all descriptions and I too thought it was just about as good as it gets. We both received a few jellyfish stings but the dive master treated them straight away making the sting disappear (they were not the deadly ones). The only problems we had was trying not to get too sunburnt and trying not to eat too much of the yummy food onboard. We failed on both counts. The last visit was to Daydream Island where they berthed and gave everyone 1 1/2 hours to wander about the big resort where you could go swimming in one of many pools, one even had a bar where you swim up to and order a drink. The resort is huge and after a good walk about we settled for a G&T in the main bar inside as it was so hot. There is a pool containing some large sharks and many other fish including Nemo and Dory to keep you entertained outside also, so it was very easy to enjoy this very popular resort. Many of the resorts on these islands have actually been closed due to the surge in popularity of cruise ships. It was a long and enjoyable day and we were a couple of very happy and tired tourists when the bus dropped us off at 5.30pm. Next morning we booked in for another night and had a easy day walking about the town's waterfront and markets along with many other people from a calling cruise ship. Later in the day I washed and photographed our lovely Dreamtime motor home and listed it on Gumtree which seemed sad in a way as it has been our home away from home for so long traveling well over 30,000 k/m so far and still with a few k/m's to do yet.