Day 42: Mon 6 Jun - Sarina

 Day 42: Mon 6 Jun - Sarina

19 – 29°.  Note the minimum temperature today: 19deg...  It's not a typo - not bad for winter is it?  It was a mostly cloudy day, a little bit humid and almost no wind. 

Another early morning walk for Greg and I to start the day - firstly to the top of a nearby hill with partial views across to the coast, then back down and around town. On the way, i booked a table for lunch at the Third Ground Coffee House, a nice looking cafe where our long time friend Lyndi would join us from Mackay for lunch. 

After breakfast we all walked the short distance down town to the Sarina Sugar Mill and distillery for a very informative guided tour on how sugar cane is grown, processed and milled. It was quite informative, and surprising to hear there are 180 different varieties of sugar cane. The $22/head entrance fee (for old people), including taste testing of a range of products including rum, distilled liqueurs, sauces, chutneys and fairy floss, was both worthwhile and good value. The 9:30am tour may have been a tad early for taste testing fairy floss though ...(no problem with the rum and liqueur 😃).  A bottle of Limechello did find its way back to our van. At midday, Lyndi joined us at the cafe for lunch where we stayed for the next couple of hours catching up. We plan on bypassing Mackay on the way north, so Lyndi was kind enough to make the 50km trip south to visit us on her day off work (unfortunately i didn't get a blog photo). While we were at the cafe we had a surprising, and totally unexpected meeting with my cousin Fay's husband Phil, a truck driver from Mackay, who stopped at the cafe for coffee. Another coincidence was that Lyndi who owns a swim school in Mackay also taught Fay and Phils son Will how to swim when he was younger - It's such a small world. After lunch, Lyndi  came back to the van with us and we sat outside in the shade of the palm trees for a couple more hours catching up, before Lyndi returned home to Mackay. Greg and I went for a snappy 15km ride around town. We thought about riding out to Sarina Beach 15km away, but decided the narrow road in afternoon traffic wasn't worth the risk.  Sundowners was at our place tonight, at which time we made bookings for our 2-night stay at Ayr from tomorrow. Another full day - a fantastic day, ended way too soon. 

Sarina Palms Caravan Park - one of the nicest parks we've stayed at.

Sarina Palms Caravan Park

A huge grassy site under palm trees - very nice


Sarina Sugar Mill - Backdrop to our Sugar Shed tour

No words necessary


Our very enthusiastic, and knowledgeable guide 

Harvest machinery from a bygone era

Sarina Sugar Mill preparing for the start of harvesting in 2 weeks time

Harvest machinery from a bygone era


Rum and Liqueur distillery 

Sampling fresh pressed sugar cane juice 

A serious sugar hit for Clarry

More machinery from a bygone era

Not our lunch venue!. Unsure if it's still used, but looks very similar to a lot of my previous SE Asian dining venues

What a small world - a chance meeting with Phil from Mackay who stopped in for a coffee.

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