Bundaberg

We left a rainy 1770 at 6.30am on the greyhound and arrived into Bundaberg 90 minutes later! Things hadn’t really gone to plan this week so we arrived without booking our campsite or with any inclination into what we would get up to!!! The rain turned to drizzle so we walked to Finemore Campsite just on the outskirts of the CBD. Half hour later (backs dying!) we got to our destination which is situated right on the Burnett River. Because it had rained so much recently the owner advised us not to camp on the last two pitches as when it rains they flood. We didn’t care.....the rain had practically stopped and we were really tired, so we pitched up right on the river bank next to another 4 tents.

We met two Canadian girls straight away who are cucumber picking for a few weeks and it is a small world, one of them went to school with our friend Jen and is catching up with her in a few weeks...madness! They get up at 4.30am, start work 5.30 till about 2pm and earn $2.50 for each bucket they fill (big buckets).....sounds like slave labour to me!

I slept in the afternoon as I was so tired and I think Darren took a little walk around and went to the tourist information centre. At about 3pm we were both sitting in the tent reading when the heavens opened! We suffered 2 hours of heavy torrential rainfall and the underneath our ground mat felt like a water bed! And then we realised.....we had two small holes in our ground mad from the last place and because the water wasn’t being absorbed into the ground it was coming into the tent and our sleeping mats/bags were starting to get wet!! What a fantastic way to spend your 6 month wedding anniversary......trying to fix holes in a tent!!!! Luckily some campervan neighbours of ours had duck tape so we managed to stop the water coming in just (and these holes were tiny....but there was so much water!!!) It all turned out good in the end....we joined Sal and Skinny for a beer under their canopy and waited for the rain to stop! Happy Days!!!

The rain eventually stopped around 5ish so we decided to head our quickly just incase it started up again! Because we have been on a budget for a few weeks and not eaten out at all we decided to treat ourselves to an all you can eat buffet and Sizzler which was amazing.....for the first time in a long time Daz actually was full and felt sick at one point!!! Think he needed it mind....he’s back to his skinny frame! It was lush, broke the budget for the evening but it had to be done, special occasion and all!!!!

So on Saturday 14th March we woke up to sunshine!! Yey....we haven’t seen the sun in quite a number of days!! We pottered around the campsite for a few ours, did our laundry and then headed out. There isn’t a massive amount of things to do in Bundy.....we walked into town and headed to the fruit and veg market (all local produce) and bought loads for half the price of what you’d pay in the supermarket! We think Bundy is a very religious town as there are so many churches, all different shapes and sizes too....some of the buildings were beautiful. We had a stroll around the town and went to the zoo, which is actually a little animal sanctuary with some wallibies, emu’s, birds, turkeys, goats and there was Mr. Ostrich! We chilled at the pool in the afternoon and read our books....just a very chilled out day!

We went to the cinema in evening which was a little theatre with one screen and big red chairs, very old school! They only show 2 shows a day so we went to see Revolutionary Road with Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio.....hmmmm not much to say about that film really! It was weird! But it was nice to get away from the tent and we actually went to bed quite late....9pm!

On Sunday the weather was finally back to its old self.....Cyclone Hamish had fizzled out and not caused any damaged to land which is a relief. We took a long walk over the river to the Botanic Gardens in the morning, walked across the Burnett Bridge which was built in the 1920’s and looks it! It was a hot day so we chilled in the pretty gardens for a few hours, watched the steam train circle the park and had an ice lolly in the cafe! Bundaberg is the home to Bert Hinkler, the aviation guy who flew from England to Australia back in 1928 (we saw one of his planes in the Queensland Museum in Brisbane). Well there is a big museum here dedicated to him (we didn’t go in) and they also relocated his Southampton home to the gardens in 1983, the only other house relocation is Captain Cooks which is in Melbourne Fitzroy Park. It was definitely a typical English Edwardian style house.......so there are lots of Bert Hinkler statues and dedications all over the town.
We spent the majority of the afternoon by the pool, caught some sun which felt lush and had an early dinner and another early night!

We had planned to go to the Rum Factory today but buses don’t run on a Sunday so we couldn’t get there. Bundy is also known for its turtle nesting tours on Mon Repos beach but the keepers had to relocate nests because of the cyclone so the nesting season finished a few weeks early, that was gutting as we really wanted to do that! But still, we had a nice relaxed few days and enjoyed somewhere different.

We had an 8am bus back to Rainbow Beach on Monday and we were gearing ourselves up for our guided tour to Fraser Island on Wednesday!