Year One
Date: 10/10/2008 15:45
Weather: Rain and wind
Location: Burnett River 24'47 04S, 152'23 01E
Author: Peter

After a certain amount of time away from the mainland and food suppliers it really is funny the things you start to crave and miss. As we have said before, things you normally would not crave like hot chips, or ice cream, or fresh juice. On the morning of the 6th after breakfast we made a snap decision and took advantage of good winds to sail for Bundaberg. After a perfect sail half of which was under big bird we arrived late in the afternoon and anchored near the entrance to the Burnett River. The next morning we motored the 5nm up the sugar cane banked narrow winding river, past the Bundy Rum factory all the way to Midtown Marina (25'51 78S, 152'21 08E)in the centre of Bundaberg. We arrived to a very balmy 29 degrees celsius and allot of humidity as a change was expected and the cloud was building up. The rest of the morning was spent doing some boat cleaning and a months worth of laundry before we headed into town for lunch and an air conditioner. It sure is much cooler on the water.

Bundy surprised us with its size and traffic. It really is a large town with plenty of history and historical buildings. It also has the most churches I have ever seen in such a small space. They are just everywhere and if Adelaide considers itself the city of churches it needs to take a close look at this town. That evening we made chicken burger's for dinner with fresh lettuce. Yep that's another one of those things we crave. When we left Airlie lettuce was $5 dollars a head so we left without it but now they were back down to a respectable $1.29. Yum.

Tuesday morning saw us awake to a much cooler (25 degrees celsius) overcast day, and the we set about the business of re provisioning as our next guest John Cronan was arriving later that day. After a few hours we had a very full shopping trolley including fresh fruit and vegetables, so we pushed it the 2km back to the boat and were grateful for the cooler temperatures before we stowed it and ate a lunch of Vienna Sausages on fresh knot rolls washed down with local Bundy Juice. Kylie then took off back into town, while I finished up some boat jobs and waited for John to arrive, before we all sat down to some fresh local pineapple for afternoon tea followed by a very short walk before the rain set in. We finished the day off with a meal at the local RSL club directly behind the marina.

The next morning saw us picking up some more fruit and our meat order before making our way back upstream to where we are now awaiting the wind to abate so we can head out to Fraser Island. We feel a little sorry for John as it can get a little boring when the weather is not nice and you are stuck in such a small space.

Last week back out at Lady Musgrave we continued spending time snorkeling and walking the Cay. We did not get to dive as Kylie still had some slight symptoms of a cold and could not pop her ears properly. The snorkeling however is still so good that we were not disappointed and I even experimented with some movie footage on the under water camera so you can all see what the sea life is like. Although I did it on the worst water quality day we had during our entire stay and in the area where all the tourist boats go so the coral was not as good as some of the other spots. Kylie and I both even got to swim with a large group of green sea turtles which had both of us grinning from ear to ear. They swam beside us, less than a metre away. On the last day we also got to see them up close on shore as some of the females spent the day resting before heading back out into the water. It is truly a magic place at this time of year and we can't wait until the next time when we can come back.

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