The Big Pineapple is just one of the "big things" of Australia, which they seem to love just plonking all over the place to catch the attention of passers-by. Sometimes, I'm told, It's difficult to travel anywhere n the country without driving past a big this or a big that. The Big Pineapple, at least, has made some sort of effort to be more than just a giant plastic fruit by the side of the road - but not much. There is a little train to drive visitors around the working pineapple plantations, a petting zoo, a guided tour in which somebody with no life drones on about pineapples until everyone dies of boredom, and a few shops that sell fruit. Mainly pineapples. Oh, and just in case anyone should think for a moment that none of this is very interesting, somebody has stuck a little plaque onto one of the carriages of the train to inform visitors that Prince Charles and Princess Diana sat their royal backsides on the train back in 1983 - so if members of the British Royal Family enjoyed the Big Pineapple, it obviously must be great. For the record, I actually encountered Princess Diana once at a magic show in London by the illusionist David Copperfield - she was there with Princes William and Harry and they were seated a few seats away from me along with some guy with a ridiculous amount of guns. When I returned from the toilet during the interval, she was swinging on the beam over the exit door from the theatre balcony, making "wheee" noises in a most unlikely manner - so this is a woman who certainly believed in having fun. I can't imagine for one moment that sitting on a kiddies chuff-chuff train at the Big Pineapple looking at fields of fruit really did it for her, to be honest.

About Simon and Burfords Travels:

Simon Burford is a UK based travel writer. He will be re-publishing his travel blogs, chapters from his books and other miscellaneous rantings on these pages over the coming weeks and months, and the entry on this page may not necessarily reflect todays date.