What a contrasting week of beautiful beaches and cliff top walks in Bowen, down the coast to marvellous Mackay and Airlie Beach, then through central Queensland highlands stopping of in Emerald before spending the weekend hiking the many splendid trails in Carnarvon Gorge. See the video of Week 25 OzLap.

Beautiful Bowen Beaches Monday 27^th to Wednesday 29^th September

Bowen is a little slice of paradise with 5 beaches, each pointing in a different direction, guaranteeing there’s always a spot to swim or relax out of the wind. Horseshoe Bay (where we stayed) is the jewel in the crown and has a curved sandy patrolled beach and the water is deep and clear. There’s a top little Café which has a good Sunday music session and great breakfast and lunch. Three resorts fill this corner of Bowen and there’s two restaurants, Thai and Indian inside the waterfront resorts. Greys beach, next door to Horseshoe bay faces west and is a fav for sunsets and snorkelling in the calm protected waters. Queens beach a little further south is a long stretch of sand with a shady walking track alongside. Murray Bay and Rose Bay are two small cove style beaches facing east that can be reached via a cliff top hike from Horseshoe Bay or by road. We rode into town from Horseshoe Bay, about 6km, to the working waterfront where there’s a pier, water park, skate parks, a giant Mango and swooping magpies which attacked us as we rode by!

Three things to tick on a trip to Bowen are: 1. Horseshoe Bay Café 2. Horseshoe Bay to Rose Bay hike and 3. Sunset from Grey’s beach.

Artsy Mackay and Emerald Wednesday 29^th and Thursday 30^th September

Wednesday we headed south to the sprawling seaside town of Mackay, stopping for lunch and a walk around Airlie Beach on the way. A bit like an upmarket Gold Coast, Airlie Beach has marinas galore, the streets are lined with pubs and cafes and there’s lots of little coves and beaches. An hour further south, Mackay was a busy working town but we escaped the crowds with a lovely walk out the breakwater at the marina, sunset up at Lambert’s beach lookout and then a delicious Asian fusion dinner at Fusion128. Early Thursday morning we walked along the Mackay Art trail and river walk before heading inland to Emerald where we stayed on the golf course next to the 50m pool which we did laps in Thursday night and Friday morning. We watched a lightning storm roll in from the Golf Course’s 19^th hole Thursday night and weathered a full blown thunderstorm in the early hours of Friday.

Three things to tick on a trip to Mackay and Emerald are: 1. The Mackay Art Walk 2. The Emerald Golf Club for a sunset sip and the Emerald Sunflowers at the Visitor Centre.

Flora, falls, gorges and bluffs in Carnarvon Gorge Friday 1^st to Sunday 3^rd October

Friday was a long, monotonous drive down to Carnarvon gorge through flat, cattle country the only thing keeping us alert was dodging the wandering cows. We pulled in to Takarakka campground at 2pm and headed out to explore a couple of the walks nearby. We did Mickey Creek and Warrumbah gorge, both giving us a taste of the cool, fern-lined side gorges we would experience the next day. Happy hour at the bush bar at Takarakka came with a 20 minute film on Carnarvon Gorge full of tips of what to see and times to go which was very useful and we picked out our approach over sunset drinks from the Lookout ten mins above our campsite. Saturday we were up early and at the French patisserie when it opened at 7.30am. Yes, there is an authentic French patisserie at the Wilderness Lodge just inside the National park. Nothing else for 200 miles…no restaurants, shops, supplies, but you can get croissants, Mille Fieulle, eclairs and tarte tartin! We picked out a selection, popped them in our back pack and enjoyed at the first of the side gorges we visited for morning tea. Carnarvon Gorge is a wide canyon 10km long with 6 side gorges that take you on delightful journeys to caves, waterfalls, indigenous art and fern valleys. We hiked up them all (, clambouring over rocks, up ladders, along rocky paths and despite the crowds (school hols and long weekend) managed to enjoy a few moments in each alone. We saw 3,000 year old aboriginal rock art, limestone walls dripping with moss and ferns, a natural towering circular limestone amphitheatre and a deep cool canyon with crystal clear waterfalls. We even managed to spot a few platypus on the nature trail walk on the way home. Sunday we were up at 6am to hike to Boolimba Bluff a 6km walk with some seriously steep climbing up rocks to a majestic view over the ‘Ranch’ the eastern side of Carnarvon Gorge. It is a 3 hour walk and some people had left at 4.30 to see the sunrise – and we thought leaving at 6.30 was early – but at least we beat the heat as it was 37c by 10am. The rest of Sunday was driving north – east through the mining towns of Moura, Banana, Mt Morgan, Comet up to Yeppoon where we have a blissful whole week parked on the beachfront.

Three things to tick on a trip to Carnarvon Gorge are: 1. The French Patisserie at the Wilderness Lodge 2. The many side gorges off the main gorge walk – especially Moss Canyon and Art Gallery 3. Early morning hike up Boolimba Bluff