The end of our tropical journey

Yesterday we passed back underneath the Tropic of Capricorn, so our tropical adventure is officially finished. I am particularly sad about this as the further south we head the colder it is going to get! After chasing warmth around the country for the last six months, the thought of returning to a Canberra winter is sending shivers down my spine.

But central Queensland is proving to still have some warmth in it (around 24 degrees) and we'll enjoy it for as long as it lasts. We'll also keep enjoying the 'big' items we're finding to add to our collection, this time it was the big mango (Bowen) and the big bull (Rockhampton).

Mackay was a lovely stop over for a couple of days, staying on the waterfront at Black's Beach. The kids spent hours building dams and castles in the sand and I even got time to read on the beach while they were having fun.

After many questions in the car about all the sugar cane we've driven past, we finally found some answers at the Sarina Sugar Shed. We learnt about the process of making sugar, saw some of the machinery used and tasted crushed sugar cane and sugar cane juice. The grand finale was of course fairy floss: Dylan loved his, Lukas got halfway through and felt sick, Evie said it was 'too sweet' and Max tentatively had a couple of licks.

Rockhampton was an impressive city with lovely old buildings, a free zoo in the botanic gardens and a CBD that was actually vibrant and open at 9am on a Sunday (Canberra take note). Gladstone received a round of applause out the windows of
Suzy Q for its beautifully landscaped roundabouts and median strips, but we didn't stop driving as Max was soundly asleep.

Oh, and here's a trivia question for you. Highest mountain in Queensland? Mount Bartle Frere. How do we know this I hear you ask? Because the roads department puts big trivia signs up on the side of the highway to keep you alert while driving!

After an overnight stop at Gin Gin (perceptive readers may remember that we also stopped in a town called Gin Gin in WA!) we had a thoroughly enjoyable day in Bundaberg. I enjoyed the beautiful historical buildings and an excellent coffee but the crowd favourite was the Bundaberg Barrel where, after visiting many wineries and breweries around the country, the kids were finally able to do their own tasting of Bundaberg soft drink. For kids that don't drink soft drink it was a fun and sugar-loaded experience that required lots of running around at the beach and playground afterwards.

I suppose we are in the sugar capital of Australia and that's why we seem to have stopped at a lot of sugary places of late. But that will be the end of our sweet visits - I don't want the kids to get a taste for it!!