Molongle Creek, Bowen and a very strange free camp

Our next stop was a place called Molongle Creek.  The caravan park there had good reviews and supposedly great fishing.  We needed somewhere to stop overnight and it looked like a perfect fit.

The park is next to a boat ramp with a man-made channel running out to the nearby sea.  It’s also next to a bunch of mangroves which we eyed dubiously, both remarking about their proximity and usual association with biting insects. 

Walking down to the ocean.

We set up camp and Lou went for a short walk along the bank to go fishing.  She didn’t have any luck, and in the process of catching no fish, slipped down an embankment, landed hard on her arse, got covered in prickles and cracked the face of her phone, which had been in her back pocket.  The only positive about it was that there were no witnesses.

Crap fishing and nasty prickles. But a great sunset to fall over by.

The next morning as we packed up the van, we realised that we were both covered in sandfly bites.  Thankfully Ben was not bitten.  We had loads of the hard, blistery bites that signify sandfly, not mozzie and Lou had a dozen just on her neck – they drove us mad for days and days.

We need calamine lotion! Stat!

Bowen

Bowen was a surprisingly lovely town that we could easily have stayed in longer.  The lovely lady at the Big Mango info centre recommended a great fish and chip shop at the wharf and directed us to Horseshoe Bay for good snorkeling.  We realised that hiring stinger suits every time we wanted to swim was going to be very expensive so we bought our own and headed out for a swim.

Ben with Blake's undies at the smaller of Bowen's two Big Mangoes.

The story of Mangogate!

Fish bin!

Hanging out at Horseshoe Bay before going for a swim.

Ross, Barb and Daniel had changed their plans to go inland and turned up in Bowen too!  They met us at the beach and we all decided to travel down to Airlie Beach together.

The caravan parks in Bowen were ridiculously expensive, especially as it was evening and we were planning to leave early the next morning so we decided to drive a bit out of town to a free camp that had 4 stars in the app we use (WikiCamps). 

We arrived at the camp site to find that it is like a hippy commune.  The app said it had power and water (neither of which we really need but it was super hot so being able to use the aircon would have been nice) but the area for vans was just a paddock with broken glass strewn through it.  There was a highway on one side and a train line on the other – it was really noisy.  The section for tent campers was next to a shack where the owner lived and it had a fire pit, tin shed toilet and farm enclosure.  The backpackers love it because they all sit around the fire and smoke dope all evening (there is a huge plant growing there to supply them).  No wonder they don't notice the traffic and rumbling trains.

What kind of plant is that Mummy?

On the positive side, the owner's sow had just given birth and Ben and Daniel were invited to come over to the pen to see the piglets, which they loved.   

Very cute piglets.