Bundaberg - Huzzah!

Going to Bundaberg was a slight detour, but there was no way I was missing out on a tour of the Bundaberg Distillary Company, where Bundy Rum is made - Hazzah!  (If you are wondering why I keep saying "Huzzah!", you'll need to do some research on the founders of the distillary, or go on the tour.)

I love the fact that the starting of the distillary was in response to the region having a massive surplus of molasses (by-product of sugar refining), which they didn't know what to do with.  Let's make alcohol !!!!

The tour was great - even if we weren't allowed to take ANYTHING electronic, or even with a battery in it, including watches, phones and cameras (so no photos).  The guides was quite funny, even if 1/2 the group weren't laughing at her jokes.    Since sugar refining only occurs for about 4 months per year, they have massive vats on site containing millions of litres of molasses so that they can continue to produce rum all year round - huzzah!

Here's a LINK to a couple of other (not many) photos of the Distillary.

From here I drove north (suprise!) towards Gladstone.  The going was slow due to the constant road works on the Bruce highway - lots of stopping and starting.   One of the other consequences of the large amount of roadworks is that the road works have to stay somewhere, so almost all accommodation in Gladstone was booked out, including caravan parks!!  I kept driving through Gladstone but couldn't get any accomodation.  Also, some of the roadside stops were also not accessible due to the road works - doh!

By this stage it was dark, and I'd prefer not to drive at night, so I found a road side stop at Mount Larcom, pulled over and tried to get some sleep.   It was pretty noisy between the trucks going passed and coal trains rumbling by every 15 mins, so I didn't get much sleep.   

The next day I drove the final 80km to Rockhampton.  I was pretty tired, and the forecast was for rain, so I thought I'd get a cabin and have a rest day.  I found a caravan park, and even though it was only 9:30am they allowed me to check in.  I took my stuff in, had a shower and relaxed - ahhh!