Mackay and Sarina

I think I'll remember Mackay's Orchid House for a long time. Stunning blooms of so many different varieties; some so delicate and others so robust. We were both calling to each other, "Look at this one!" Luckily, we were the only 2 in the house at the time. We've tried to grow orchids a few times but not successfully. Maybe now that I'm retired, I can have a better go.

Photos are taking too long to upload from Rockhampton (net is very slow) so I'm only going to post one at the moment.

Mackay is also at the centre for sugar cane production; cane fields border the main highway for kilometres and go back as far as the eye can see. It seems that almost every spare space is used to grow this cane. Some houses are surrounded by it with a narrow path hewn to allow access to the property.

We've both wanted to see how sugar is produced so we took the opportunity to visit the only miniature cane mill in Australia at Sarina (not far south from Mackay). Our guide was experienced and informative - we didn't know how involved the process was and we learnt about sugar cane from the planting to the final product. Watching freshly cut cane being milled, tasting the greenish sugar juice and seeing some of the machinery in operation helped us to understand what is involved.

This mill produces different products for sale and tastings after the tour helped the sales along. We haven't tried the lime chilli sauce yet but the ginger beer was a treat!

Most of the towns in Queensland ar having their shows and the big one in Brisbane, The Ekka, is featured on the local TV news every night. It is Queensland's largest annual event. Don't know why it's called Ekka. Sarina's show was on when we were in Mackay so we thought we'd see what a country show was like in Queensland. Same as country shows in SA - smaller than the Royal Show but just as noisy and smelly. We wandered around for a couple of hours looking at the blacksmith working his hammers, the angler hawking his lures (he was really funny), the bull judging, Punch and Judy, camels and checking out the crafts and baking.

Robert was really keen to show me some roosters and hens that his family kept when he was a little kid. Chooks and I just don't get on; bad experience as a child when I used an outside loo at a friend's house only to have a hen fly down from the over head water cistern on to my head and flap and flutter making such a  fuss. Quickly, I followed him to the cage, commented on its size and took off out the door.

One of the cutest animals on show was a very tiny, pink piglet. It was the star attraction of the animal nursery.