Rainy day in Bundy

Of Bundaberg, walkabout says: 'Bundaberg is located on the Burnett River 14 m above sea-level, 20 km from the coast and 371 km north of Brisbane. It is a typical subtropical city with an annual rainfall of 1159 mm and average daily temperatures ranging from 22°C in winter to 29°C in summer. The name 'Bundaberg' is a combination of 'Bunda', the name of the local Aboriginal tribe, with 'burg', the Saxon word for town. '

Lonely Planet, on the other hand, is more lyrical: 'Not much has changed in this typical Australian town The main strip, with wide streets and towering palms, is positively gracious and the extensive suburban development is still dominated by stoic old Queenslanders.'

One of the brochures put out by Tourist Info describes Bundy as 'the salad bowl of Queensland.' A lot of fruit and vegetables are grown in the area and a lot of backpackers come here for the casual work. Bundy is also famous for Bundy Rum - the distillery is nearby. There is also a Ginger Beer factoryproducingng Ginger Beer, SasparillBeer andnd Lemon and Lime Bitters. I've just samplesome of thehe Ginger Beer (bought in the IGA supermarket on Woongarra Street) and it is very tasty.

I arrived here on Sunday. After my brief blog entry at Bundaberg Aqua Scuba (cracomputer withth slow connection, crap keyboard and erratic mouse) I was taken to the house owned by the company. Jim, father-in-law of Julian, the boss, took me there via the IGA supermarket,where he suggested that I might need to get some food for the night and the following morning. The house was pretty basic. Shared accomodation in a smallish house. There were 3 people already staying there: two young Korean women, Mai and Jin,and a young Japanese man called Tomei. They were all in their early 20s. There were also two other young men there, who were just visiting: another Japanese man and a young Dutchman called Bartek. All were dive students. Bartek is doing his Dive Master training and was in fact assisting on the course today. I was to share a room with Jin, who was leaving the next day. Mai invited me to harere their meal - cooked by Jin. It was a good meal of pasta, prawns and different meats and I really appreciated it. Another two young Koreans joined us for the meal, but they spoke no English.

Mai (aged 22) commented that I must be more her mother's age, but they were all shocked to learn that I am 50 and have a grandchild! Mai said I must have a 'pretty cool personality' to be travelling on my own as her mother liked to go on holiday, but with friends or with her family - she would never go alone.

After the meal I went to lie down as I was feeling pretty tired after the day's travelling, but also struggling to find some common ground other than diving, and we'd exhausted that for the moment. In fact Mai suggested that Ishould take a rest as I looked tired. I took her advice and went to bed. It was 8 p.m. - very early for me! I told them not to worry about noise and put my earplugs in firmly. The room that I was sharing with Jin was a windowless room in the centre of the house, leading off the living-room,which was also Tomei's bedroom. The air conditioning system was in the living-room. Once the bedroom door was shut it was hot and airless in there -just a ceiling fan to circulate the hot, stale air. I woke a couple of hours later needing the loo and found the house empty. I had just got back into bed and was about to replace the earplugs when I heard a banging on thr door - the two Japanese lads had gone out without a key, expecting the others to still be there when they came back. Lucky for them I'd woken when I did and taken the earplugs out!

I woke around 6.00 a.m. next morning determined that I would find somewhere else to stay. I actaully had quite a heated debate with myself about this. On the one hand I thought that I should stay; that this was all part of the take-it-as-it-comes travel experience. On the other hand, the place was a tip, the other occupants were much younger than me, all good friends and into partying - and I didn't have to stay there. I had spent far less money that I'd expected to because I'd not spent anything- or very little (the cost of overnights in caravan parks) on accomodation in the previous 2 1/2 weeks.

Lonely Planet listed the Lyelta Lodge as being very reasonably priced accomodation and it was only a few blocks away. I walked round there at about 8.00 a.m. and enquired. Single en suites were priced at $45 a night. I was actually given a double room (with a double bed and a single in it) for $170 for 4 nights, and the landlady (another Mai) said I didn't need to pay a key deposit as she could trust me not to run off with the key. It's not exactly luxury accomodation, but it has air conditioning, a TV, fridge and kettle. And it's all mine I don't have to share it. I can snore to my heart's content! After the house on Barolin Street it seems like luxury. It even has a window, though you can't open it, it lets in the minimum of light and there's no view (it's ground floor, looking out onto the fence that borders the pavement). I went back and got my bags immediately.

I had an odd moment as I trudged along between Barolin Street and Lyelta Lodge (on the cornerof Maryborough and Woondooma) with my rucksack on my back - suddenly getting a sense of being a long, long way from home. When I unpacked, I spent a little while looking at my photographs and had a little cry. I'm glad I'm here, but it is a long way from home and a long way from friends, family and all the usual reference points. I wish Paul was here too. On the other hand, I also like having time to myself. 'Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself! I am vast; I contain multitudes.' (Walt Whitman).

I went to sign up for the diving course at lunchtime yesterday. The others had all started in the morning,but I have already completed the theory, so did not have to start until today. At 2.30p.m. we were taken in the minibus (driven by Roger who is one of our tutors) to Linden Medical Centre for the dive medical ($55). I passed- whoopee! One of the tests is a hearing test. This is done in order to establish a baseline, so that they can measure whether your hearing has been affected by diving at alater date. Apparently I have lost some hearing in my left ear - in the higher range.

There are 5 of us on the course and I am the oldest by far. There are 3 young Israelis (I couldn't work out what language they were speaking but I knew it sounded familiar- was a language I'd heard before and spent sometime around) from central Israel: Daniel, Sara and ?. They are all beautiful - as young Israelis seem to be. Daniel and Sara are bronze-skinned, Sara with thick black ringlets that she plays with all the time, twining them around her fingers. They didn't deign to speak to me until today. Interestingly, Daniel was a bit freaked out yesterday when we were all asked for a urine sample. He wanted to know exactly what we were being tested for. The 5th student is another Daniel, aged 28, from southern Germany (near Bavaria). He is really friendly and good to talk to. He has recently graduated in engineering (I forget what type) and is doing some travelling before going home to get a job. He is hoping to find work in Berlin, but his girlfriend, Eva, is currently living elsewhere in Germany,though she has just been made redundant from her first job, after only 2 1/2 months (last in, first out).

The tutors are Roger and Daniel (the 3rd Daniel), assistedby Bartek. Today we went to a pool to do all the confined water skills stuff. I was free after we'd finished and rinsed off the equipment. the others had an afternoon of theory.

I'mnotvery impressed by Bundaberg Aqua Scuba. The equipment is in pretty poor condition. My first reg free-flowed and the second leaked a smallamount of air continuously. My BCD jacket was barely hiolding together and also leaked: whenever I inflated it it slowly (or not so slowly) deflated - not much use if your life depnds on buoyancy!

I had an hour's siesta after lunch, then went for a walk around. Browsed in another 2nd hand bok shop and got some interesting books by Australian authors. Also found some internet cafes closer to where I am staying. I'm in one of these now. Then I bumped into Daniel (the German one). We went for a drink - I had coffee and he sampled Bundaberg Rum and coke-which comes on tap, ready-mixed. After that we hung out for a while, chatting. I showed him where the IGA supermarket was. Bartek had invited us all round to watch Monty Python videos and Daniel wanted to get some beer. I declined the offer. We went for fish and chips from the Busy Bee on Targo Street. Nice fish but the chips were battered too and very greasy. We ate them sitting under the palm trees in Bourbong Street, with Lorikeets squalking noisily above.

Then I came here to write this. It's now 10.00 p.m. (Tuesday) and the place is closing. Night night.