Day 33- Bunda-what?

  May 29, 2011- Day 33

Where: Rainbow Beach to Bundaberg

Dinner: Roast meal from the “sports club”

        It didn't rain all night long, but this morning there were still big puddles all along the roads in the campground. I was a bit stressed about how we were going to get out, and I Pat and I ended up walking along all of the roads trying to figure out the best path out. It was funny to hear what advice people had to offer us along the way. Everyone said we'd be fine and to just gun it through the puddles. They also would offer to push us out if we got stuck. What a helpful camping community. We had some toast for breakfast and then made our grand departure. It actually ended up being quite easy to avoid the big puddles and we didn't have any problems at all. Phew! It was a relief to get out of there. We drove an hour to the town of Hervey Bay. It's a super popular place to go our and watch humpback whales, but unfortunately it's not the right season for that. We only stayed long enough to walk down the esplanade and get some fish and chips. There wasn't much else to do so we continued another hour and half to Bundaberg. There is a caravan park here that we can stay in for $5 which is a good deal, since we need to take showers and do laundry. We got here in the afternoon, too late to swim, so we're going to get snorkels tomorrow and hopefully do some snorkeling.

        A lady at the caravan park told us about a sports club down the road that has a roast dinner for $3.95 on Sundays. That's cheaper than McDonalds here, so we figured we'd go check it out. A sports club here is a place where older people hang out, with some restaurants in it, a casino area, and a bar. They usually have lawn bowling as well. Old people here love lawn bowling. Apparently roast dinner is a very popular night at the sports club and there was already a line when we arrived 20 minutes before it opened. I'll tell you what, this place was a display of the local color. We were probably the only people between the ages of 12-35 I the place. The food wasn't bad though and you can't beat the price. It as held in a huge auditorium like room with a bunch of long tables set up. It felt a bit like a church potluck. It felt so weird to even be there, but the people watching was pretty good. Downstairs on the way out there was a live singer guitar player and there was a dance floor where some people we dancing. I'm glad that the older folks are getting out and enjoying themselves, but I just found the place to be depressing. I'm not sure what the appeal is to the tacky Las Vegas décor is, but these people seemed to be digging it.

        After wards we went to the movie theater down the road to see the Hangover 2. The theater was packed but unfortunately I didn't think it was as good as the first movie. Oh well, it was still fun. Doing some laundry now before going to bed.