Leader tour at AJ2013

Below is a write up I did for the Cub Pack mascot's blog about the Leader Tour I did while at the recent Australian Jamboree.

 

Today was a really early start for Akela, Mischief and Wilbur. It was the day we were doing the leaders only tour in Bundaberg! It was certainly one Akela was looking forward to. While it may sound strange that there was a leaders only tour and including a place that makes rum, it was definitely for leaders only.

 We checked in at 6:30am and were on the bus not long afterwards. The buses headed north, through Childers, which is well known for a fatal fire in the backpackers hostel on 23 June 2000 killed 15 backpackers: nine women and six men. Many were in the town working as fruit pickers, a popular form of work for backpackers, due to its seasonal work and the ability to move around Australia.

 It wasn’t long before we arrived in Bundaberg. For those who don’t know, Bundaberg is a city in Queensland, Australia. It is part of the local government area of the Bundaberg Region and is a major centre within Queensland's broader Wide Bay-Burnett geographical region. The city is on the Burnett River, approximately 385 kilometers ( or 239 miles for those who are use that unit of measure) north of the state capital, Brisbane and 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) inland from the coast.

 
 We arrived at our first point of call in Bundaberg–  the 1928 cafe (http://www.bundabergcafe.com.au/) where we got a chance to have morning tea. While 9am may seem early to some people reading this, for those at the Jamboree, many of us had regularly been getting up at 4 or 5am. So 9am was an ideal time for morning tea. Well, Akela thought so as she was often up and at the showers by 5am most days.

 

From here, the leaders went over to the Hinkler Hall of Aviation. The museum was definitely worth going to. Bert Hinkler, was a pioneer Australian aviator (dubbed "Australian Lone Eagle) and inventor. He designed and built early aircraft before being the first person to fly solo from England to Australia, and the first person to fly solo across the Southern Atlantic Ocean. He married in 1932 at the age of 39, and died less than a year later after crashing into remote countryside near Florence, Italy during a solo flight on another record setting voyage. There were many interesting exhibits there and more about the museum can be found out via this link
http://hinklerhallofaviation.com/ In fact, the most interesting thing that was at the

museum was a small piece of wood, a relic from one Hinkler's hand-made gliders, was presented to the U.S. astronaut Don Lind in early 1986 as a token of appreciation for his coming to Bundaberg to contribute to the Hinkler Memorial Lectures. Lind in turn gave it to Dick Scobee, the captain of the ill-fated final Challenger mission. Scobee took the wood with him on board the Challenger, inside a small plastic bag that he placed in his locker. After the explosion, the bag and the wood were recovered from the sea, identified, mounted, and later returned to the Hinkler Memorial Museum.

 

 

Once we had finished at the museum, we wondered back to the bus and were taken to our lunch venue – the Bundy Bella. The lunch and cruise was awesome. One particular highlight of this part of the day out seeing how high the floods in 2010/11 had gone. The boat captain pointed out on how high it had gotten on the buildings along the river bank. All were higher than what we were and it was certainly sobering to realise how high the river had peaked during the floods that summer.

 

After lunch, it was onto the definite highlight of the day for many who had signed up. A tour of the Bundaberg Rum factory. Unfortunately, there are not as many photos of the factory tour due to not being able to take photos of the actual tour. No one was allowed to take cameras or phones in because of the charge and the fumes that are a part of the rum making process. But we were able to get a few shots outside though, just to prove we were there! For those wanting more about Bundaberg Rum Company, check out this link for more information. http://www.bundabergrum.com.au/

 Once the tour was over and we had a chance to buy, it was time to get back on the bus and head back to the campsite. It was certainly an enjoyable day and all had a good time.