Rum, ginger beer and old friends

Bargara is a lovely spot on the coast about 15kms from Bundaberg. It's a place we'd probably visit again. Being close to Bundaberg meant a few trips in to check out some of the tourist spots with Bundaberg Ginger Beer and Bundaberg Rum Distillery being near the top of the list.

The Big Barrel at Bundaberg Ginger Beer Factory.
We tasted some different products that we don't see in SA. Bought some ginger beer and chocolate-coated ginger.

Bargara Beach at sunset.

Main street in Bundaberg. Stainless steel palm tree sculpture standing along side the real thing.

Public art is everywhere in Queensland and it's great to see.







Bundaberg Rum Distillery was excellent especially as neither of us are rum drinkers. We did the tour and it was so informative, interesting and entertaining. Molasses is stored in an enormous concrete shed. It looks luscious, like rich and creamy toffee.

The tour guides, Donna and Di, were great. The aromas from the vats is almost intoxicating. Jokingly, Donna offered her microphone to an Italian tourist to do a bit of kareoke and to everyone's surprise, he sang to us. He was a handsome man with a lovely voice. A bonus for eveyone!

We posed with THE BEAR and tasted some of the products on sale.  Rum drinkers were in heaven. Part of the tour entitles each person 2 drinks (and they are a normal size drink).

A friend told us about an excellent liqueur so went along with his recommendation. Fantastic!!!! It's available at cellar door so we have enough to last us for a while unless we share with Jennifer, Heafy, Lynda and Trev.

In Bargara Beach Caravan Park, I didn't expect to bump into an old friend from high school days. Pam and I went through Port Adelaide Girls' High School and we were good friends. Pam, Hartley, Robert and I used to go out socially and once we had kids, we saw each other a few times and have always exchanged Christmas cards.

Chatting for a couple of hours over a cuppa with Pam's mum and dad, we found out that Eunice was in the same class as my dad in primary school at Alberton Primary! What a small world!

We extended our stay so that we could have a really good catch-up. The only changes were our appearances - other than that, we were still the same. Listening to stories of other trips, we discovered that in March we'd missed each other by one day at Tidal River in Wilson's Promontory; in ACT in April, we missed each other by a week. Eunice said that it was bound to happen that we connect sooner or later somewhere in Australia.

Shaz and Pam

We're looking forward to catching up when we both return to Adelaide. I think this made Bargara Beach a special place.

From left: Hartley, Vern, Eunice and Pam