Bundaberg Part 2

Coming to you live from Gin Gin . . . just westish of Bundaberg.

We've been settled here at the showgrounds for a few nights now - just chilling out and enjoying ourselves doing - well not very much of anything really . . .  except for some updates to the blog . . . strumming a few tunes, experimenting with the Sizzler BBQ and watching a parade of military vehicles that would make a North Korean dictator proud on his birthday.

I'm going to try and get the Phantom drone up in the morning to get some pix of the show ground oval stacked full of Army vehicles heading back to Brisbane after an exercise just north of here.

Anyway - back to the Bundaberg Brewery - home of the most awesome brewed soft drinks in the country. I have been a huge fan of their brewed softdrinks for years. I'm a regular consumer of the Ginger Beer and Lemon, Lime and Bitters; and have tried some of their other flavours after Coles at Gungahlin started stocking mixed six-packs a couple of years ago.

The brewery experience is a BIG step above the mixed-six-packs. There are actually 16 varieties . . . 15 that you can buy in the shops and one cola variety that is sold exclusively at the Barrel.

The Barrel - home of Bundaberg Brewed Drinks

The interactive tour experience includes a tasting at the end that includes ALL 16 VARIETIES. The tasting cups are small, but you end up suitably fizzed and bubbly after trying all 16. There is also an awesome shop onsite where you can buy all of the varieties in quantities to suit. Jayne & I left fizzy, bubbling and burping for the rest of the afternoon - with a small stash of stubbies to take away in the Manta.

We also visited the Holy Grail for rum drinkers in Australia - the Bundaberg Rum Distillery, where Bundy Rum in all of its glorious varieties is made.

Bundaberg Distillery

We did the guided tour of the distillery, which included entry to the museum and a tasting afterwards at the Bundy Bar.

Because of the highly explosive nature of the stuff that goes on in the distillery, we were not able to have any electronic devices with us. Our phones, cameras, fitbits etc were all locked up behind a roller door outside the factory before the tour started, so no photos to share from the tour.

Mickey looking worried before the tour !

Seems its not worth taking the risk of a random spark with over 2.1 BILLION dollars worth of rum onsite - especially after they have already had 2 huge fires at the factory over the years.

A lot more available than Bundy Original

Our intrepid guide Scott, who quite surprisingly seemed totally in love with his job at the distillery took us for a tour that showed the sugar-cane factory next door, the molasses storage pits, fermenters, stills, maturation vats and bond stores and finally the newly opened visitor's centre and bar.

The tour was great - informative and educational and with a tasting treat at the end. We managed to escape with a moderately small bill for a bottle of smooth salted caramel Royal Liqueur and a bottle of the hand crafted Blenders Edition 2015 limited release.

The Blenders actually won the award for the world's best rum in 2016.

I also tasted the distillery absolute premium rum - Solara. It was heaven in a bottle - and included in the tour tasting.

I loved it, but at a mere $189 per bottle, found the 2015 Blenders was better bang-4-buck for an unemployed trainee nomad, so that one came home with us.

One lovely little nip per night !

Anyway, we have well and truly explored Gin Gin on foot and had a few nice drives to explore a little further afield. We've met some nice folks here, including a couple all the way from Bungendore ! Small world . . .

The butcher at the back of the showground is brilliant - Jayne bought some pork belly a couple of days ago so we had a bit of a Masterchef afternoon cooking it up a few different ways. Our neighbours loved the smells coming out of our little Sizzler BBQ, which is a very handy and versatile little BBQ and oven.

The Traveller's Rest Cafe has apparently been winning awards and commendations for its pies for years. We tried one of their 2016 winners - a Laksa pie. Its a little hard to describe, but worth a try if you're ever up this way.  Traveller's Rest doesn't have a website, but do have a Facebook page.

After our Cape York trip in 2010, Jayne & I both recognised the value of having access to "electronic" news - radio, TV or internet. Big things can and do happen while one is away from home and with no reliable connection to the outside world. On the Cape trip, Kevin Rudd was PM one day, and Julia the next.

We figure that its good to have access to information about weather alerts, crazed gunmen roaming the outback, zombie apocalypses - who can tell what's gonna be big news!

Our favourite game at the moment is "What has Donald done?"  We check the news each day to see what the "leader of the free world" has got up to - who he has sacked, pissed off, threatened or otherwise blown up with the Mother of All Bombs.

Its a great fun game, but it needs a reliable connection, which I'll reveal some more about in our next post !  Also be a good time to have a look at some of the tech goodies we've brought with us to help stay in touch.