We continued our drive south and stopped in Caboolture, Queensland for a night. It’s a far north suburb of Brisbane, where we are ultimately heading.

We drove through bone dry country. What a difference from the ‘wet tropics’ where we were in Wangan, about 969 miles (1560km) north.

We moved on to a small apartment in Boyne Island for 2 nights, about 6 hours south of Bowen. We found a great little restaurant and ate before dinner time so we had the place to ourselves!

Grilled fish and chips! Delicious

To get the eclectic nature of the place, check out this video HERE.

We’re in Bowen, in the Whitsunday Region of the Queensland coast, on an inlet of the Coral Sea. We got up early for another sunrise adventure!

The sunrise looking towards the Whitsunday islands, about midway along the Great Barrier Reef.

An interesting stump of a tree along the hike to the sunrise viewpoint.

After our breakfast we went for a drive to Airlie Beach where the ferry to the Whitsunday Islands is. The town was way too crowded and touristy for us, so we headed to a quieter, more remote town at Dingo Beach. No dingos, but a great beachside bar & motel and a pristine tropical beach!

The white sand beach with a “stinger net” that was not effective anymore!’

The reason for a ‘stinger net’ is the seasonal influx of deadly jellyfish (of course they’re deadly, it’s Australia!). It is recommended that if you decide to enter the water from November to May you should be completely covered in a wet suit to avoid the deadly stings of jellyfish!

I decided to risk it all and walk barefoot in the surf up to my ankles! Thank goodness, no jellyfish today!

Our new home for 3 days is an apartment in Bowen just a block from a small beach. We got up before dawn and walked to the beach with our morning coffee.

The sun came up in the dip between the two hills in the distance.

We walked back to the apartment, had breakfast and went for a longer stroll on the Bowen Coastal walkway, weaving along beaches and residential areas.

We heard and then spotted a family of kookaburras along the walkway. I wanted to video them to get their unique calls, but they shut up as soon as they knew we were watching them!

After lunch we drove to the further reaches of the walkway and found a rocky headland we explored.

The wind picked up and waves were splashing on the windward side but the sun was warm.

We got up before dawn and drove 20 minutes to the closest beach, Etty Bay Beach, to watch the sunrise.

We arrived in time to see the sun briefly before it was swallowed up by the ominous clouds on the horizon.

We spent a few minutes walking on the beach and watching the muted sun light up the forest at the edges of the beach. We have a long day ahead, packing up and driving about 6 hours south to our next destination. But we had a fantastic surprise as we drove out from the beach through a strip of forest!

A wild cassowary casually walking along the road, his throat wattle swinging with the rhythm of his long-legged stride!

For a video of the surprise encounter click HERE! We were astonished again just down the road as a 2nd smaller cassowary was ambling along the other side of the road! For a video of the 2nd bird click HERE! We got back to the B&B, had breakfast, packed and started our drive south.

Sugarcane is not the only agricultural staple of this area of Queensland, apparently bananas grow here very well also! It looks like the banana bunches are bagged while still on the ‘tree’, maybe to protect them?

Part of our drive took us along the coast, past this iconic ‘tropical’ image!