Day 76 Thursday 31st August

We all had a reasonably quiet morning around the camp with some of the boys taking Rick and Kerry’s dog, Beau for a long walk along the track that brings vehicles to Glen Erin. I caught up with some housework and washing. After lunch Rob and I drove into Bowen for another look around the town. Bowen is quiet a large town and has an impressive marina full of large boats. In the main part of Bowen we saw many cyclone damaged homes that are still in the process of being repaired. Obviously there has been a priority of the most damaged homes being repaired first and the trades needed here are in limited numbers. I visited the Bowen Cemetery while Rob did some shopping. Bowen was the first port established in Northern Queensland and was officially proclaimed in 1861. The cemetery was very interesting. The most interesting historical thing in the cemetery was an obelisk to James Morrill, an English born sailor who was shipwrecked on a reef off the Great Barrier Reef in 1846. For 17 years he lived with an Aboriginal group near Bowen and when Europeans came to Bowen in the early 1860’s, returned to live among them. Back at Glen Erin for happy hour around the campfire, our damper flavour was golden syrup and beer!





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