Sandblow and Bundy

After packing up Pearl, we drove a little out of Rainbow Beach and walked about 1km to the Carlo Sandblow, a 120m high sand dune. Sandblows are amazing expanses of sand that are slowly creeping inland, pushed by onshore winds, swallowing up vegatation as they go. We all enjoyed the hugeness of the sandblow and the incredible views inland, over the ocean and up to Fraser Island. Then it was back to Pearl and on the road again. The kids are listening to audiobooks while travelling which seems to make the time go faster for everyone! Took just over an hour through to Maryborough where we stopped for lunch in Queens Gardens, before another 1.5 hours through to Bundaberg. Of course we had to stop here for a tour of the Bundaberg Rum Distillery. The tour takes you through a high voltage electric fence to the working distillery, from checking out the raw ingredients - the molasses (smell better than they taste!) - through to bottling. The massive white American oak vats, which store 75,000 litres each for the mandatory two years, were pretty impressive. So after seeing and smelling our way around the distillery it was time for some tasting - the kids with a choice of fizzy, and us from a range of Bundaberg products. Although it was good to sample, it just confirmed to us that we are not Bundy rum drinkers!

From Bundaberg it was only a short hop in Pearl through to another spirit, Gin Gin, where we picked up greasies (but very nice ones) and headed 2kms out of town to the rest area which is one of the many areas set up for travellers, a free place to park for the night.