Bundaberg

The Tilt Train has its bonuses (big seats, TVs etc) but there was one downside on this trip. Strange to say, but it was annoying that it was faster! We ended up arriving in Bundaberg at 7.30am instead of 9.10am which meant we had to wait around for ages before we could check in at 9.30am!

Bundaberg is a fairly big town and the main reason for backpackers coming here is to work. There are lots of fields around and a lot of fruit to pick so most people at our hostel are up at 5am to go off to work! This hostel isn't great but its only $46 pn, we're only here for three nights and its clean so we can't complain really. Whilst waiting to check in I went to tourist information to find out the best things to do in 3 days. Turns out that there isn't much but one thing that was recommended and only "a short walk away" was the Botanic Gardens. We started off to go there on Sunday just after lunch but it was an immense walk and not even very good gardens, I wasn't happy! After a long walk back we managed to cheer ourselves up by finding a backpacker bar showing the Melbourne Grand Prix, 1st race of the season. Watching Lewis Hamilton win took up most of the afternoon and definitely cheered us up!

The main reason that an Australian (and maybe even a Brit) would know of Bundaberg is because it produces some of the finest rum. It was this rum that we focused on on Monday. We booked a distillery tour and this was actually really interesting. We got to see (and smell) the gigantic vats that they keep the rum in to mature. Each one holds around 65,000 litres of rum, the equivalent of $3 million worth and they have over 290 of these vats, that's a lot of money! We also got to see the bottling plant which is quite cool to see all the machines go from an empty bottle to a full one complete with lids and labels in exactly the right places, being put into boxes and then onto palettes, all automatically. At the end of the tour we also got 2 free drinks, bonus!

To complete our Bundaberg drinks day out we took a wander to what is know as the Bundaberg Barrel, the home of Bundaberg Soft Drinks company where they brew ginger beer among other things. I wanted to go mainly to see the building which is designed as a barrel, very clever. This was quite good but nowhere near as good as the rum distillery (and not just because of the lack of alcohol!).

Tonight we have booked on a tour recommended by reception which could be absolutely amazing but could also be a massive disappointment. We're booked to go to 'Mon Repos' one of the worlds largest and most important hatching grounds for Loggerhead Turtles. Here's hoping we see something!!