DAY 139: Day off in Bundaberg

Tues 11th March 2008
Sunny intervals, hot, dry

Nice lazy start to the day, lying in sleeping bag, but when the sun hit the tent at 8 it was time to move! After a relaxed breakfast of muesli by the river I rode off. The city centre has wide streets and pavements and even on a normal working weekday like this there is no crowding, and I was able to cycle on the pavement without fear of colliding with anyone.I found a bike shop run by a gut with an Irish accent and I asked about a centre stand, but he only had side stands - however he recommended a particular one as being very strong (needs to be to support 60 or 70kg without falling over) so I took the plunge. I do miss the centre stand that broke for being able to stand the bike up independently, so hopefully this will work, although I’m not utterly convinced yet. One of my brake cables is a bit sticky and he told me about some liquid stuff that frees them up (it’s not oil apparently) but then he didn’t have the small bottle of this stuff, only a big aerosol, so I didn’t get it.

2 blocks away I found a hairdresser and got thoroughly ‘sorted’ - short haircut and beard thinned out with a ‘no.1’, and it now feels much better. The lady hairdressers were very friendly and we had a thoroughly good natter about everything. Next stop was internet place but on trying a different place to yesterday (which was SLOW) this place lost internet access as soon as I started so I went back to yesterday’s place and eventually completed uploading to date.
Time for lunch, which was a ‘fill your plate for $9 with Chinese dishes’ type of lunch, washed down with a Bundeburg ginger beer.
I spent the rest of the afternoon in the Botanic Gardens, where hundreds of Egrets were established with nests in the trees surrounding the lakes, and the Ibis as numerous as ever. There is a very attractive Japanese Garden here, which has been beautifully designed, asn shown in the pics, and I enjoyed a quiet half-hour listening to the wind-rustled bamboo and gently trickling stream, away from the madness of the world lol.
The rest of the day was spent chatting to my Norfolk neighbours and reading the paper, at the end of a very relaxing day off.

NB the white birds are Cattle Egrets (I think).