We are in Sugar Cane country! Driving north through Queensland from Brisbane, there are acres and acres of the stuff. That coupled with lush rainforest & so much green countryside (and sunshine!!) makes you feel you are in a different country to the Australia seen so far. It would seem that most of the sugar cane production finds its way to the Rum Distillery at Bundaberg - a rum town (their pun not mine!) with little else of interest. Paul sampled their brews more thoroughly than me (driving!) but was particularly taken by the draft (yes on tap!)rum & coke. I enjoyed a long, weak 'Dark & Stormy' - a bundaberg double, rum & the local ginger beer. Our big adventure for the last few days has been a Fraser Island safari. Fraser Island (sitting a 55min ferry ride off the Queensland coast) is the biggest sand island in the world - it's 123km long, with a 75km beach and rises to over 170m at its highest point - all sand. It's covered, for the most part in rainforest, with bald sand coloured crowns rising to a summit every so often. It has the most genetically pure dingos in Oz (and we were lucky enough to see a family of 4, making short work of a turtle) and legions of snakes, spiders and surrounded by waters rich in fish - so lots of sharks are always hanging around! You can only drive on it using a 4WD and the beach is an extension of state highway one - and looks like it as well when 4WD drive tourist bus after tourist bus are racing up it. We toured with the Fraser Island Co, and it included a night spent on the island, in the Wilderness resort. Hardly the wilderness though, ensuite cabins, with hot showers and a bar with a fab buffet BBQ..just what we needed after a day swimming in fresh water lakes, formed by the action of sand dunes, bouncing over 4WD tracks through the rainforest and visiting fascinating sand formations, stained into various colours and shapes by the action of the vegetation and the weather. Some of the formations looked so solid, it was impossible to believe they were sand (Paul assures me that in time (millions of yrs) settling & heat will turn them into sandstone but until then they remain a geological oddity). We stayed in Hervey Bay YHA before and after the visit - it felt like being back in SE Asia, with the warm evenings (and downpours!), the clear skies, the sound of the wildlife and the wood panelled bar and dining area, open to the elements. A place to physically and mentally kick off your sandals.
Sunday, 3 May 2009
Sunday 3rd May 2009
We are in Sugar Cane country! Driving north through Queensland from Brisbane, there are acres and acres of the stuff. That coupled with lush rainforest & so much green countryside (and sunshine!!) makes you feel you are in a different country to the Australia seen so far. It would seem that most of the sugar cane production finds its way to the Rum Distillery at Bundaberg - a rum town (their pun not mine!) with little else of interest. Paul sampled their brews more thoroughly than me (driving!) but was particularly taken by the draft (yes on tap!)rum & coke. I enjoyed a long, weak 'Dark & Stormy' - a bundaberg double, rum & the local ginger beer. Our big adventure for the last few days has been a Fraser Island safari. Fraser Island (sitting a 55min ferry ride off the Queensland coast) is the biggest sand island in the world - it's 123km long, with a 75km beach and rises to over 170m at its highest point - all sand. It's covered, for the most part in rainforest, with bald sand coloured crowns rising to a summit every so often. It has the most genetically pure dingos in Oz (and we were lucky enough to see a family of 4, making short work of a turtle) and legions of snakes, spiders and surrounded by waters rich in fish - so lots of sharks are always hanging around! You can only drive on it using a 4WD and the beach is an extension of state highway one - and looks like it as well when 4WD drive tourist bus after tourist bus are racing up it. We toured with the Fraser Island Co, and it included a night spent on the island, in the Wilderness resort. Hardly the wilderness though, ensuite cabins, with hot showers and a bar with a fab buffet BBQ..just what we needed after a day swimming in fresh water lakes, formed by the action of sand dunes, bouncing over 4WD tracks through the rainforest and visiting fascinating sand formations, stained into various colours and shapes by the action of the vegetation and the weather. Some of the formations looked so solid, it was impossible to believe they were sand (Paul assures me that in time (millions of yrs) settling & heat will turn them into sandstone but until then they remain a geological oddity). We stayed in Hervey Bay YHA before and after the visit - it felt like being back in SE Asia, with the warm evenings (and downpours!), the clear skies, the sound of the wildlife and the wood panelled bar and dining area, open to the elements. A place to physically and mentally kick off your sandals.
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