A CRUISE IN THE SUNSHINE

It was our last day on the central coast of Queensland. Since we were here celebrating George's birthday, he was asked to choose what activity to do on the last day. He chose to go on a river cruise on the Burnett River which flows through the town of Bundaberg.

 We arrived at the mini dock at 9:00am where the "Bundy Belle" was waiting for us and a few others too. It was already a hot sunny day.

 The captain of the boat was also a local school music teacher but he gave us a running commentary on places and their history as we lazily motored along the river. We couldn't go any further up stream than this because the huge floods last year filled the river with silt and sand. The water came up to the top of the bridges and did a lot of damage in the city.

 So we headed towards the mouth of the river. George, in the checked shirt, chose to sit in the hot sun on the top deck.

 Paul, Helen and the rest of us sat inside and collected a cool breeze through the windows. We admire Paul so much as he is having treatment for cancer and he is in quite a lot of pain but he keeps fighting it and joining in with us whenever he can. We hope this new treatment will give him some relief and more time with us all.

We passed the rowing club and.....

 the sailing club. Behind the yachts is a huge sugar storage shed and the wharf where ships come to fill their holds with bulk sugar. Bundaberg is famous for its sugar, rum and ginger beer.

 We passed miles of marinas crammed full of million dollar yachts shimmering in the sun.

After three hours we had returned back to the little wharf and a huge seafood restaurant. We didn't take long to decide this is where we'll have lunch and.....

it was delicious!

BUNDABERG and BARGARA

After Childers we reached Bundaberg in the evening and stayed there overnight. 

In the morning we drove a short distance to the beach at Bargara. The beach is protected from big waves by the start of The Great Barrier Reef, which stretches 3000k/1800m from here to the northern tip of Australia.

Driving back to Budaberg we stopped at the lookout and we could see Bargara and many sugar cane plantations. Milling sugar is the biggest industry.

Besides sugar, Bundaberg is famous for Rum and Ginger Beer. We visited the "Bundaberg Barrel" museum showing the history of making Ginger Beer. They still make it with all natural products. is delicious.

Bundaberg is also well known as the birth place of the famous aviator, Bert Hinkler, born in1892. He made hand made gliders and flew them at Mon Repos Beach near Bundaberg. He went to England in1913 and became a test pilot and he also flew in WW1. His most famous achievement was flying solo from England to Australia in 1928. We visited the Hinkler Hall of Aviation.

This was Bert Hinklers house in England, it was dismantled brick by brick and relocated to his hometown in 1983. He named it Mon Repos.