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Having passed some 1000km of sugar cane fields on the road south of Cairns, I'd begun to wonder what happened to all the sugar produced here.

Naturally several hundred tons of the stuff finds its way into cups of tea swigged by cowboy builders in London each morning as an accompaniment to their greasy egg and bacon sandwiches. What happens to rest however is a mystery...

In Bundaberg they have a novel way of using the cane from the surrounding fields - they slap it into huge copper vats and make Rum.

The town of Bundaberg is next door to the town of Gin Gin - the latter being much smaller, a reflection of the tipples relative popularity here. Once can't help feeling the town sizes would be reversed if this were the UK.

In fact, Bundaberg Rum - shortened to 'Bundy' of course (as the Australians are too bone idle to use a proper vocabulary) is a national institution here. It is served with multiple mixers - a good one being Bundaberg Ginger Beer, another by-product of the sugar cane.

I cannot say that the tour of the factory was overwhelming, it was far far too clinical (unlike the Sugar Mill we'd visited earlier) but a saving grace was the excellent sampling bar at the end.

Make mine a double.

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