From Airlie Beach north it was virgin roads for all of us. Although we have been to Cairns we have never driven the coast between Airlie and Cairns so the 625km stretch ahead was new for the 3 of us, and would include pies, a mango, cowboys, and an island named ‘Maggie’.
Bowen was first stop and we knew a few random things about this little town – there was a big mango to be found (which was actually stolen in 2014 by Nando’s fast food chain as a publicity stunt and returned a few days later!), an award winning pie shop and it was the location of filming for much of Baz Luhrmann’s Australia film in 2007. What we didn’t know is that the gorgeous Horseshoe Bay would provide the best snorkelling of the trip so far.
As we enjoyed our Jackman “Aussie hunky beef” at the quaint Jochheims Pies for breakfast we were lucky enough to chat with the original baker’s wife, and the woman held responsible for encouraging the film’s location scouts to choose Bowen. The pie shop has become a shrine to Bowen’s history and also memorabilia from the film.
Next stop, Townsville – home of the NRL Cowboys and gateway to Magnetic Island, or Maggie as she is affectionately referred to by locals. As luck would have it we were in town on a Friday night as the Cowboys played at home with Andrew’s Broncos. Sometime last year the 3 of us became 1-game Cowboys members to secure tickets to this game and it paid off: the game sold out weeks ago and over 25,000 people piled into the stadium to watch Jonathan Thurston play his 250th club game. With a 19-18 win, the Cowboys supporters made the city come alive post game!
Townsville has a great laid back vibe, not too many high rise buildings and boasts a beach side esplanade The Strand that is set up with swimming nets, a rock pool lagoon, cafes and play and sports equipment. We ate some excellent meals in town and stayed at the uber cool Rambutan – a “flashpacker” hostel complete with private rooms, glamorous rooftop pool and a bar and restaurant that the locals flock to. A very cool concept and the crowd ranged from international teenagers on their gap year, to families and then people like us.
And then there was Maggie. Magnetic Island is a short 10km barge trip from the city marina, and a little island that packs a big punch. Highest on our radar was the snorkelling the island is famed for but overcast skies and tides gave us limited visibility and not much joy.
So we hit the many walking trails, the most impressive being the Forts Walk which gave us a WW2 history lesson as we wandered in and around bunkers, ruins and gun stations left behind from the 1940’s. Regrettably we all knew little about how close war came to Townsville and to see up close the efforts that were taken to protect our country was sobering. An amazing and unexpected bonus to this walk was the sighting of wild koalas! We saw 2 in what is said to be the largest colony of wild koalas in northern Queensland. Not sure that the international tourists truly understood how rare this experience was.
There was also a game of golf and again the food was excellent everywhere we ate on Maggie. Whilst the sun barely made an appearance all weekend it was still a great visit and worth a trip if you are in the area, even if only for a day trip from the mainland.
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