From Bundaberg to the Great Barrier Reef

We stayed in the Best Western Motor Inn on Bourbong Street which was owned by Tom and Glenda Dunphy. They were very friendly and accommodating hosts and they helped us with whatever needs we had.

We spent three nights and two days in Bundy. (What the locals call the city.) We were unable to get a connection out to the Great Barrier Reef on Tuesday, October 2 so we booked a flight to Lady Elliott Island for Wednesday.  This put us a day behind in our plans and we consequently lost our chance to visit the Australia Zoo. (Steve Irwin’s place near Beerwah) We’re not certain we could have gotten reservations to visit, at any rate, because this week is still spring holiday for school kids. (We just found out yesterday that one of the weeks we’ll be in New Zealand is a school holiday there! I don't know how we ended up hitting the holidays and the Australian Football League championship in Melbourne and the Rugby Championship when we were in Sydney, too!)

Tuesday we worked on laundry and other domestic things and took some time to walk around the downtown area of Bundaberg. Small shops abound mixed with churches, banks, Target, and a band-shell in the center of the street. (Much like Ballarat, although Bundy is 1500 miles north.) Many of the sidewalks and pedestrian crossings were paved with red brick which gave the downtown a quaint, retro look and appeal.

The weather in Bundy was much warmer than in Ballarat ,(being farther north) lows in the 60’s and highs in the 80’s, although it was rather windy during our stay. We experienced a little rain, mostly at night, but it wasn’t enough to put a damper on our activities.

Our host, Tom, arranged a trip for us on Wednesday, Oct. 3, to Lady Elliott Island when we thought we may have to trek further north to find an open time to get out to the Great Barrier Reef. Once again, because of the school holidays, most of the bookings were full. We met the plane at the Bundaberg airport at 8:30 in the morning and boarded the fourteen seat plane. The seats were the most comfortable we’d had up to now but the space between the rows was only about a foot. Very tight quarters in that size plane.

The flight was smooth and uneventful, the people we met on the plane were very friendly, mostly from Australia, but one couple was from the North Island of New Zealand. They recommended we take a  cruise on Doubtful Sound on the South Island but we haven’t taken the time to book it yet. (We will probably end up cruising Milford Sound instead because the connections to the cruise lines are easier from Queenstown where we'll be staying.) The landing was a little bumpy because we landed on a flattened coral runway. (First time I ever landed anywhere except on concrete or asphalt.) The runway reaches from once end of the island to the other and measures 600 meters.

Once we landed, we had a little orientation, got our lunch passes, and then I got my snorkeling gear and had a brief refresher lesson. (It’s been at least 40 years since I last went snorkeling.) At 10:45 we boarded a small, glass-bottom boat and headed out to the reef. (Which was easy since it surrounds the island.) After a short distance, they dropped the gate and the water seats and we donned our gear and dove in.

The experience was amazing! There were several deep chasms in the area we swam, but in some places the coral grew close enough to the surface that I could touch it. The coral at the south of the Reef is not as colorful as further north, being mostly different shades of brown, but it’s just as alive and harbors hundreds of different species of sea creatures. The main types of corals here are: branching, fan, plate, and brain. The fish I recognized were: parrot fish, trigger fish, reef fish, clown fish, grouper, and some of the fish that spend most of their time cleaning the manta rays that are common on this reef. These fish were iridescent blue and seemed to glow when rays of the sun shone on them. They were absolutely stunning! I didn’t get to see any manta rays (they’ve documented over 600 different individuals) but I did get to swim close to a green reef turtle for a minute. It’s not as large as a loggerhead but still measured about two feet long.

After the snorkeling, we  ate a tasty buffet lunch (seafood and lamb) and took some time exploring the island on our own before joining a tour which gave us some information about how the island was formed and some of the bird life that nests there at different times of the year. Normally, there are about 50,000 birds but during nesting season that can swell to 500,000! We couldn’t imagine the amount of noise that would cause. The birds that were there now were loud enough. Actually, our guide informed us that the bird poo, mixed with the eroded coral is what formed the island and is still responsible for helping it to expand in size.

Our adventure ended too soon, it seemed, and as we approached the plane to board for our return trip home, the pilot informed us he needed a new copilot. I volunteered, hesitantly, and climbed over the pilot’s seat to occupy the copilot’s seat. Believe me, I studied the controls intently, just in case the pilot keeled over and I had to assume control. (Thank God nothing like that happened because the pilot didn’t share any information with me.) The most exciting thing that happened on the way home, that I could see from the copilot’s seat, was that the fuel ran out of the left tank and we had to switch to the right. (I could have handled that myself, since I had located the switches in the ceiling between our seats earlier.) We landed safely, bade good-bye to our new friends and arrived back at our rooms after a brief taxi ride.

Next: Coffee, drinks, and food. 

"And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  Mark 11:25

Train trip from Sydney to Brisbane/Bundaberg

 This was a night trip of over twelve hours and was probably the most difficult one we'd made. For some reason our seats were double booked, although we booked them first, but we offered to change seats to make it easier. The woman who sat behind us had a baby who screamed until about midnight and the train car creaked and groaned like a ship’s mast in a tempest. We though certain as we pulled out of the station that they would stop the train and change cars, but they kept going. It made it all the way to Brisbane (most people here pronounce it: briz' - bun) where we changed trains after a four hour stopover. Not much else to tell about this part of the trip since it was dark outside.

(Beerwah is the stop to take to see Steve Irwin’s, Australian Zoo.)

Between Brisbane and Bundaberg rise the Glass House Mountains. Some are short peaks while others are upthrusts of rock that stand a few hundred feet above the land around them. They start near the coast around Landsborough (some miles north of Brisbane) and march inland for a number of miles. They were named by Captain Cook on his voyage to Australia.

There are a lot of man-made watering holes for cattle and sheep. Just about anywhere there is a hill, ravine, or gully they can dam up one end or dig out a hole and bank the downward side, a pond is created. Not only does it serve for watering stock, but the native animals can make use of the water supply, as well.

Gimpie, a city south of Bundaberg, used to be a fairly large gold mining area but now boasts of only one working mine. Most gold production now is near Ballarat or near the northwestern area of Australia.

Rain followed us up the coast. As we approached Gimpie North, the rain is falling steadily, which makes the locals on the train happy since they've had ten years of drought the last twelve years.

This same area also has fertile land that supports a number of cash crops: pineapples, macadamia nuts, apricots, sugar cane, and grapes. There are also plenty of beef cattle raised in this area, while rum is the major product of Bundaberg. A man in the seat next to us said we had to visit the distillery to get some free samples, but we never made it there. (Maybe next time.)

The land also has many forests of the normal variety of trees native to Australia that grow on the hills and valleys that predominate the land just inland from the coast. There is an invasive species called Bracken Fern that covers a good portion of the ground beneath the forests along the coast. We saw a few kookaburras and were told that kangaroos also were sometimes seen in this area.

Travel by train is second nature in Australia. All the major cities have underground trains and there are five or six lines that run across the country from city to city. In the east and southeast, the trains run daily, or up to several times daily, but in the west and central portions of the nation, they may run only once a week.

We saw two kangaroos hopping across a field after being scared up by the train about an hour and a half south of Bundy. (What a lot of the locals call Bundaberg.) There is a range of mountains or hills that stand between the train route north and the coast that is part of the Great Dividing Range.

South of Maryville (75 miles or so south of Bundaberg.) the soil is poor and there are huge, hard ant mounds. They occur around the country where similar conditions prevail. On some trees there are large black spheres bound around the trunks or branches. These are termites that will eventually kill the tree by eating it away from the inside.

Next Chapter: Bundaberg and the Great Barrier Reef

"But he who is greatest among  you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.  Matthew 23:11-12