Before I start I just want to say it is nice to finally be writing a blog so soon after the day, even if it's going to be about a less full on day. I wonder how long this will last, because I am doing a canoe trip which involves camping in a few days! And I am going to Fraser Island too next week and I really don't know what the facilities will be like there.
Moving onto the serious stuff, I had a good night sleep, getting woken up by the early sunrise again. I don't know why but I completely unpacked my bag upon arrival for my one night in Base, which meant I had to be extra quiet when packing this morning to avoid waking people up! I left the hostel by about 8 in the end with my first stop of the day being the bus terminal where I booked my coach travel to Kroombit for the cattle ranch stay. My greyhound pass doesn't cover this as this tour is more inland. It's going to be interesting though because I arrive in Rockhampton at midnight on greyhound, go to my hostel, then leave Rockhampton at 6.30am. This will all happen in a couple of weeks.
Today I booked a tour of the XXXX brewery in Brisbane, so after leaving the bus station I headed for the brewery, passing the rather large Suncorp Stadium en route. The brewery didn't open until 10, so I ended up going to McDonalds for breakfast which was nearby in this more industrial area of Brisbane. When it finally opened I booked myself onto the first tour at 11, having a good chat with the woman on the desk about my travels in the process. Whilst waiting for the tour to start I sorted out my ever growing pile of bookings. It's like a game trying to get rid of the booking confirmations as I check into the hostels and attractions I have booked!
By 11 this Aussie man came down and took us through this large metal door. It was made clear however that no photos were allowed inside the brewery. We started by congregating around this circular screen where we learned about the history of beer up until it was first introduced to Australia by James Cook. We then moved onto another room this time seeing the history of the XXXX brewery. It was all very interesting. We then preceded through to this room where we learned how beer was made and got to smell the ingredients. This was followed by seeing all the kegs and machinery in various rooms. The scale of this brewery compared to Harvey's was massive! We finally got to see how the packaging worked for both bottles and cans, watching more videos and then seeing it in action.
After about an hour of half we finished the interesting tour in the bar where our ticket entitled us to try four beers. I started with the XXXX Summer Bright Lager which was a bit like Corona. It was then onto the brewery's most popular beer the XXXX Gold Lager which was drinkable but nothing special. In the process of trying the beer I ordered lunch here, treating myself to a gourmet chinese five spice pork and mushroom pizza which was very nice! My third beer was the XXXX bitter which was pale and drinkable with no distinct taste. I saved the best till last having their limited edition Castlemaine Special Dry which followed their pre 1924 brewing method. The fruity aromas made for a delicious aftertaste.
After finishing my beer tasting it was gone 1, with my bus leaving Brisbane for Noosa at 3.15. I therefore took the opportunity to find a few geocaches, and after using the McDonalds free WiFi downloaded 4 caches to my gps, finding 3. I also soon established their was a big 'soccer' match on as swarms of orange kept passing me. It was then to the coach terminal where the bus was late, although we got a decent coach as it had the usb chargers and drinking water on board.
By half 5 we had arrived in Noosa, and after swiftly finding my hostel without a map I found out that they were having a bbq with free food. I took full advantage of this, and they certainly fed us well as there were still leftovers after my third visit! The people in my hostel called Nomads Noosa all seemed friendly, and I even bumped into another Southampton fan... they are everywhere out here! I would have explored the area this evening but it was dark and I didn't have a map so I thought I would save it for another day! It was nice to spend the evening relaxing in the hostel talking to other people about their travels.
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