As I leave Sydney I am feeling very proud of myself as I have actually managed to
check in on-line and download my boarding pass to my phone without any help! A
big achievement for me!!
Early morning taxi for the next leg of my journey as I move
on to Cairns to meet up with Kerri’s mum, Cheryl, and her two sisters, Judy and
Rhonda. Also Rhonda’s husband, Dennis. Dennis and Rhonda’s complete family were
at the house to meet me. The last time I had seen any of them was 2001 so they
are all grown up now with partners and two with children of their own.
The hot weather I had expected in Cairns (it had been around 27C for the past couple of weeks) did not materialise. In fact it was chilly when I arrived and it stayed at a temperature that was very comfortable for me but not hot.
A day at the Botanic Gardens exploring yet a different landscape. It all felt a lot more prehistoric and more of a rainforest feel. In fact Daintree Rainforest is only about 60 miles north of Cairns and is the world's oldest rainforest. It is estimated to be at least 135 million years old and may even be up to 180million years old. This makes it the oldest continuously surviving rainforest on earth. Also, spanning 120,000 hectares it is the largest area of continuous rainforest in Australia.
Time to move on again. This time on the 'Spirit of Queensland' train. The train runs from Cairns to Brisbane a distance of 1681km (1044 miles) taking about 25 hours. In fact we were just travelling from Cairns to Bundaberg a distance of 1138 km (707miles) taking roughly 19 hours 34 minutes. We left Cairns at 07.20 on 18 June arriving in Bundaberg at 04.00 on 19 June. About 20 hours and 40 minutes. Richard had warned me that the train was always late! However it meant we got a slightly longer sleep. We were welcomed on board with a hot drink and hot muffin straight from the oven. Then it was sit back and enjoy the scenery, endless banana trees and sugar cane. We ordered our main meal which was then delivered to our seat. In the evening our 3 course meal was also delivered to our seat. This made our journey very relaxing and all these meals were included in the cost of our train ticket.
As the sun set the staff came round to convert our seats to flat beds complete with duvet and pillows. This took less than a minute for each seat and was very comfortable.
One of the staff came to wake us up just before we arrived at Bundaberg, still in darkness as it was only 4am.
I only have one day in Bundaberg with Cheryl so she had booked a visit to the Bundaberg Brewery museum. Bundaberg is most famous for it's production of rum, hence to sugar cane. However this brewery is a family owned business brewing non-alcoholic drinks. We started with a tasting of their full range of soft drinks, some of which I know are available in the UK, the most popular one being their ginger beer. There was then a display showing how the drinks are produced and bottled before being packed for distribution. Norman's job, when I first met him, was in the R&D department of a company producing labelling and bottling machines for the wine and spirit trade so I am sure he would have found it all very interesting.
On our way out we were given a carrier box to choose our 6 favourite drinks to take home as a gift. Mine was their mango.
A few statistics. - 180 million bottles a year
- each carton holds 24 bottles
- they produce 1 million cartons a month
- 800 pallets a day
- export to over 50 countries
- their target is to produce 200 million bottles a year.
Then down to the coast to enjoy fish and chips while relaxing to the sound of the waves.
Next morning was a relaxing start as i was now going to catch the tilt train to Brisbane at 10.30 am. It as a comfortable 4 hour journey to Brisbane where Richard met me.
Cheryl had this poster on her kitchen wall and I thought how true it is in our present day lives.
Comments
Post a Comment