25/9/13
Mckay to St Lawrence We left Bucasia in time to have a drive through Mackay, and head out the the Sugar mill for the 11am tour.

Mackay seems to have been rebuilt, as their are very few of the older building left . Perhaps years of cyclones have taken their toll.

Google maps, which rarely makes mistakes, took us to the wrong sugar mill, luckily we had time to spare, so a 15 min drive through the sugar cane fields brought us out at Farlleigh, where the sugar mill tour is run from. $22 entry and a free loan of long sleeved shirts and pants, if you needed them - after a short movie on the sugar making process, we donned hard hats, Fluoro vests, goggles and ear plugs, for our tour of the factory.

It is very interesting to see how complicated it is to make sugar from sugar cane. Our guide did a good job of explaining how the molasses is extracted and then turned into sugar. No part of the plant is wasted. The mill makes all its own electricity from either the sugar cane left overs or the steam they generate
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Hungry and thirsty we started looking for a nice little bakery for a late lunch, finally we found one in Sarina, and we all agreed the pies were out of the top drawer.

St Lawrence recreational reserve free camp was our stop for the night, a large, good, free camp, complete with coin operated showers, if you want hot water - $1. It is close to a wetlands, so Marg, Tony and Sue walked to the bird hide then back into the metropolis of St Lawrence - a store and a pub - so naturally we had to have a beer and a yarn with the locals.,