Not Before Time

First off, before I update about where we are and what we’re up to, I have to apologise to my sister Rosemary! We stayed a couple of nights with Rosemary and Graeme when we were in Melbourne, but for some reason I failed to mention that on here, so after a phone call from Rosemary reminding me (you know how bossy she is ) I would like to say that we had a great time with Rosemary and Graeme, we shared a bottle of Moet (ok, Rosemary shared it with me) and the room was gorgeous, with fluffy pillows, beautiful bed linen and it was very comfortable – a 5 star hotel But!!! – she forget to put the chocolates on the bed, we had to ask for them!! However even with that grave error on her part, I guess I would stay there again I am sorry I didn’t mention it here though – must be getting old or something.

We’re now in Mackay and hopefully will find some work here soon. On the way up we stopped for a few days in Flaggy Rock, 100km south of Mackay, to visit friends. Kay and Ray are caretakers of the Community Centre and swimming pool at Flaggy, and Kay is very involved in the various craft sessions they run there. It was great catching up with them, we haven’t seen them since they left Darwin to head west, and we went south. Apart from a few houses, some cattle and sugar cane properties, there isn’t much else in Flaggy – it’s peaceful, relaxing and lovely. The community centre has also just gotten approval for self contained motorhomes and vans to stay overnight, $5/night/vehicle. There are toilets there, but no showers. A good spot to stop for a night or two and do nothing.

On the way here we got held up by 2 of these on the road –

The pilot and police escorts actually did a really good job organising the traffic, keeping the buckets well apart and informing oncoming traffic that they were on the road well in advance of them suddenly finding themselves forced off the road It was quite interesting seeing them – they are each 7.5m wide .

Before we left Bundaberg, I wanted to get some night shots, especially of the bridges – there are 4 of them crossing the Burnett river in town, and I thought at least one of them would be lit up at night time, but unfortunately none of them were. However, I did get a couple of the post office and war memorial and 1 of a bridge where the traffic gave some light.

Bundaberg has some beautiful sunsets, most of which I unfortunately missed, mainly due to my being busy socialising and having a drink during sunset time. However one night I somehow managed to foresee that there might be a good one so I went out and sat on the back of the truck and waited. Rather than being the normal pinky coloured sunsets I’ve generally seen here, this one was the most beautiful golden sunset.

One night our last week in Bundaberg, there was a performance by Dennis Cuthel, a member of the original Aztec band (as in Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs) which was fun. Dennis plays a good mix of classic rock music and most of the park guests turned out to see him, with some of them even getting up to dance. He did a great job and still has a good voice, although I heard afterwards that we wasn’t very well that night. During the break, his partner was demonstrating line dancing, but wasn’t very successful in getting people to join in.

Before we left Bundaberg, I got the chance to go to The Bundaberg Quilters 12th Biennial Quilt Exhibition last Friday at the Civic Centre in town. I had a great couple of hours checking out the local quilting talent and sitting around talking to some of the quilters while having a coffee and cake. This show was really well run, and very organised. All the women I spoke to today were friendly and happy to chat about the Bundaberg quilting group and answer questions about their activities. And of course, there were lots of gorgeous quilts to see.

On the way home from the festival, we stopped off to have a look at the Flying High Bird Sanctuary just outside Childers. This is the largest free flight aviary in Australia and I’d been planning on visiting it by myself at some stage while we were in Bundaberg, cause David’s not really as interested in birds as I am – but he did enjoy it, or at least he said he did It’s probably a touch expensive at $18 for entry, but I love birds so I was happy to pay it. The owners only took over about 4 months ago, and I don’t know what the facility was like when they took it over, but they said they had made some changes with a lot more to come (koalas for instance) and they seem to be really enjoying the business.

The aviary has about 400 metres of walkway and most of the birds are freely flying about. Some of the lorikeets and parrots are very cheeky and will land on your shoulder trying to get your earrings (which I’d been warned about, so I took mine out), or in my case, the chain holding my glasses.

At the moment, there are still some birds in cages – mainly the cockatoos, some of the larger parrots, and of course the Macaws, but there are plans for a big parrot cage where they can fly around more freely.

I really enjoyed it. Here’s a few photos of the birds.