Cheap Veg - Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sun 2 May 2010 02:34
|
24:45.630S 152:23.249E
On April 25th the weather finally started to clear
as we rode the tide out of the last bit of the Great Sandy Strait, into Hervey
Bay and on to the Port of Bundaberg, a short distance up the Burnett
River. It was a total distance of 55 miles, which started out as a lovely
sail with just enough wind in flat seas protected from the
southeasterly swell by the long expanse of Fraser Island. After four
hours, the wind died and we motored the last five hours to the
Bundaberg Marina in the Port of Bundaberg. Only a week into our
sailing season and we've already lodged more than a few complaints with the
weather gods. We sent them a note about too much wind when we
left Mooloolaba, and another about too much rain in the Great Sandy Strait,
and a third about the lack of wind on the way to Bundaberg. We have a
fourth ready to go complaining about wind from the wrong direction, but it
hasn't happened yet. Sailors. We are still a big bunch of
weather complainers. Weather whingers (pronounced 'win-jers') might
be a better term since we're in Australia.
Bundaberg is all about sugar cane. We rented
a car for a day to get some shopping done and were amazed at the fields and
fields of sugar cane lining the one road that leads from the port to the center
of town. There are lots of other crops grown here too, but the sugar cane
fields rein. Reddish-brown dirt the color of dried blood fills the
fields and spills out onto the narrow road where trucks brimming with
harvested cane bump along, dropping pieces of cane after every bump.
The two products Bundaberg is famous for are ginger beer and
Bundaberg rum. Ginger beer is a spicier version of ginger ale (it's
not really beer as its name implies) and Bundaberg rum is something
we've been warned against. "Horrible stuff!" says Sue, and "Good going
down, but ugly the next morning." says the Lonely Planet. We skipped
the rum, but went for the ginger beer.
On our way to the grocery store, Sue and I drove by
a farm road where two women were setting up a sign. The words "Cheap Veg"
were all we needed to see before immediately deciding to pull over. We
hopped out of our dilapidated 'rent-a-wreck' car and went over to where the
ladies were unloading boxes and crates of cheap veg onto a makeshift
table. We inquired about the prices and freshness of the avocadoes, chili
peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, etc, and the answer was always a very
pleasant, "Fill a bag for a dollar darling!" or "Two for a dollar
darling!" or "These are good for cooking darling!" or "Let me fill this bag
for you darling!". One of the women was older with short, slightly wavy
gray hair framing a deeply lined face that was both soft and hard at the same
time, giving an impression of lots of hard work out in the sun,
but all done with a sunny attitude. The other woman was younger, with
reddish hair and a slight English accent. Both were eager to answer
questions about the area and pointed us in the right direction to "Woolies"
(Woolworths, the grocery store). Fifteen dollars and a boatload of
cheap veg later and we were off to Woolies. Sorry, no pictures of the
cheap veg ladies - I forgot to pack the camera for the grocery
trip.
We stayed two nights in the Bundaberg Marina and
then moved on to points north on our way to the famous Australian
cruising ground, the Whitsunday Islands.
Anne
|