Other than the marina and the beach, there is little else so close to the coast. The town of Bundaberg is 20 kilometres inland (sorry you Imperial folks, Australia is completely metric) .

Confession time here, I was not aware of Bundaberg when I lived in UK. But it is quite a substantial town and is (at least in Australasia and the Pacific) famous for its Rum and its Ginger Beer.

Both the Rum Factory and the Ginger Beer Plant have visitor centres and when the chance came up, we called in to see the rum factory. The tour of the factory involves a guide and a fair bit of time, whilst, the museum is open to the casual visitor, so we opted for that as a starter.

We have a slip on the outside rank of the marina, nearest to the mouth of the estuary. It may be further to walk to the office, but we get a fresh breeze and we don't suffer from the noise that must be expected from the restaurant, bar and the general areas that people congregate. In fact just a hundred metres or so across the water is a tiny beach, which families and fishermen use - in small numbers.


We walked to the beach one day and surrounding the fishermen were pelicans, larger than we have been used to in the Caribbean, but with the same agenda ...fish.

We have Kangaroos...

A friend from another yacht said that she had seen wild kangaroos near to the woods that lie to the south of the marina.

Apparently late afternoon is prime time to spot them, so armed with binoculars and cameras, we went for a forage.

Our arrival in Australia was to the Bundaberg Port Marina, Queensland. We were a little anxious about meeting the officials. The rumour around the cruising community was that they were strict and Australian rules about the condition of the hull and the goods you have on board were similarly stringent.


In the event, our fears were unjustified. The rules are strict, but well publicised and we had read them in advance. The officials were pleasant, business-like and friendly. "Welcome to Oz mate!"

The Bundaberg Port Marina is smart and efficiently managed. We felt that we had made a good
choice.

After a good rest, Jackie and Dave were anxious to be off. They had only a short time to explore Australia before they were due to meet up with their next boat in the far North of Queensland.