Beachside Beginnings

We have moved again but only about 10kms north to Bucasia Caravan Park which is situated on a beautiful beach and we decided to pay a few more dollars to have a sea view which is gorgeous and as I sit here writing under the awning I can see the gentle waves lapping up the sandy shore. There is always a downside and here it's the sand flies and mosquitos and on our first night here Bel got bitten about 40 times by sand flies (they are about the size of a pin head) and has come out in big itchy welts, I on the other hand get little red spots.

I had my first tour last week and took 3 people up to Finch Hatton Gorge which is about an hour and a half from Mackay and during the drive I talk about the history of the area and the sugar cane (the main industry).
We stop off at our base camp and I toast damper (a traditional explorers bread) and make billy tea (boil water in a billy over a fire add tea leaves and then spin the pot to one side (I knew the years of fire spinning would pay off sometime)) and then we go for a guided walk in the tropical rainforest where I talk about the flora, fauna and how the whole ecosystem works. The walk takes us to Aruluen falls where they can enjoy an brisk swim in a natural pool, I'm waiting till later in the year once it gets hotter before I go in as it's bloody freezing.
After the walk we go back to the base camp for steak & salad and then we jump back in the bus and climb up the side of the mountain to Eungella (pronounce young-galah) to see the elusive Platypus (which is very cute).
Afterwards we head back to Mackay to the sounds of some cheesy Australian music which includes Rolf Harris and ACDC.
So as for my first tour well it was a great success and we all had a great day. Now if every tour I do is that good I'll be very happy. Even better is that we ran into the couple from the tour at the pub yesterday and joined them for dinner and we hope to catch up with them later in the year in Newcastle.

We have both done the sugar mill tours several times successfully without losing anyone but I find it pretty boring and am finding it hard to be enthusiastic about it which does lead to a poor performance so I have to find ways of making it a bit more fun.

So we have crossed one hurdle in getting our respective tours under our belts (Bel still has to do her first city tour and myself a Cape Hillsborough tour) and so the next stage is to tackle the much harder problem of the company/boss which is just so disorganised. For example, despite the season already underway, they are still to get some of their flyers around the hotels etc. and the boss hasn't done his tax return in 5 years.

Bel has written a teaching plan for encourage more school groups to do the sugar mill tour but it seems to be falling on deaf ears with the boss at present so we'll see how long we can go on before we crack.