25 - 27 May Showy Bundaberg

Like many of the regional towns and cities from this part of the coast and further north Bundaberg is not actually on the coast – it has a number of satellite suburbs which are close by and these are on beautiful beaches.  We looked at Elliot caravan park and almost stayed here (it had a truly gorgeous inlet and beach) but settled on Bargara (at the recommendation of both David’s and my friend who both love this place) and it is also a lovely beach and great foreshore.

Bundy has all the stuff you’d expect for a Queensland regional city but we found something unexpected here – really cool kids playgrounds all over the place.  These playgrounds were varied, modern, exciting, and even funky.  We took the boys to a different play area each day in Bargara and the experience they had in each was totally different.  As we drove through Bundaberg we realised that all the parks we could see were super cool.  What a lovely surprise to see a regional city investing in children’s play so well.

 

View from our caravan across the foreshore to the sea

Really we don't like Bundaberg at all - not!

Bundaberg Show

Oh a show, yep rides, noise, pieces of plastic in overprices bags, I hear you say, we know shows.  So why did we go, well we had never been to a show in a Queensland regional city before.  As we passed through the gate we knew this show was a bit different to what we had in Canberra.  First up was a row of beautifully restored generators from the early 1900s, ably supported by two enthusiastic collectors only too happy to tell all about their machines.  But then there was the almost the highlight of the show – the man with the electric fencers.  Yep, on older man with the culmination of a lifelong hobby, dozens of electric fence chargers.  Up stepped the kids “is this an electric fence” they asked as the fence between us and the man was festooned with different warning signs.  No he laughed but would you like to feel one?  Then began the best lesson in electrical circuitry two 7 year old boys are ever likely to have.  The man demonstrated a number of different fence chargers, how they made smaller and larger charges, how you had to hold hands to feel it, how if he held the charger with more fingers they would feel it more.  The boys totally loved ‘getting charged up for the show’ and on our way out ran over again for a bit more charging.

A shocking experience

The snake man was also really cool and went through a number of snakes that the boys found fascinating.  I must admit that David and I are learning all the time on this trip as well.  From the snake man I learnt that the label ‘black’ or ‘brown’ etc has nothing to do with their colour – snakes are grouped on their venom. 

After this we looked at the show jumping, had to explain dressage to the boys (don’t think they ever quite got into that).  There was also an old fashioned puppet show – this was a great hit with all the kids.  We let them choose one ride – so after canvassing every ride in the whole show they chose the bungee trampoline (something they have done a few times before and obviously love).  They also used their own money (we have been allowing them to earn pocket money on this trip for exactly such occasions) to buy balls on elastic.  They lasted maybe a day or two but they were fun until they died. 

 We left the show after 2 (longer than we expected) and as the weather was lovely and warm we headed to the beach for a swim.  We had been to the beach the day before for a quick swim after some essential shopping (can’t seem to stop doing that no matter how far we travel).  But this time we went to a beach a little bit further afield in Bargara because it had this cool kids area between two break waters – locally they call it the basin. 

We walked into the water (and it was quite nice – not really warm but very swimmable) and immediately little fishes came swimming up to me, they looked completely unafraid almost as if they were expecting something.  Damn I thought, if we had just brought some bread we could try to feed them.  But we did have our snack box in the car and in it were about the worst (but cheapest) Nice bikkies.   Hmmm, they were nice and solid, something you could easily hold onto in your hand underwater.  The next 15 minutes was magic – the boys had a blast feeding the fish which ranges from tiny to almost catchable size.  It was a perfect way to finish off the day.