This might seem a bit, if you’ll forgive the metaphor, ArseBackwards, but there is both logic and opinion in this title!

The logic is that it describes my travel from Bowen to Airlie Beach, the opinion is that I’d put Bowen well ahead of Airlie Beach!

Bowen was an unexpected delight, a quintessential Queensland town with wide streets and a very laid back attitude. It is also surprisingly beautiful with some amazing (swimmable) beaches and bays, incredible views out to the Whitsunday islands and an overwhelming sense that this is a real place where real people live and work. This is typified by the sizable fishing fleet and a genuine fisherman’s wharf where you can get a generous bucket of local prawns for $15, and the surrounding agriculture (Bowen is the mango capital of Australia), there are even sugarcane fields in the middle of town; and very few tourists! I almost feel treacherous mentioning this here because I want to keep Bowen a secret!

On the other hand Airlie Beach seems to have sold it’s soul for the tourist dollar. Sure it i, as it proclaims, the gateway to the Whitsunday’s but it feels a more like the tradesman’s entrance to me. The tide seems to have gone out a fair way since the hay days of whenever the backpacker boom was in full swing – pre-COVID I guess, and even though there still seems to be a fair few young Euro and Asian women around it seems obvious the place is only running on three cylinders. Maybe it can come back, or maybe it’s had it’s day, hard to say but it doesn’t do it for me and if I was going to the Whitsundays I’d bypass Airlie and fly straight to Hamilton Island, or better still Bowen!