Australia..back to civilisation?

Our first port of call in Australia was Mackay, a small mining town in Queensland. It was out first brush with Australian bureaucracy ...very polite but all pervasive!

As we arrived we were visited by the obligatory customs men in boots. Some of these men were actually Shielas ..also in boots though.


Instead of viewing us with suspicion and keeping an eye out for the possibility of baksheesh as we have encountered elsewhere in the world, the Australian officials  came on board and took away all of our food!

Australian biodiversity officials..Sheila in diving gear about to check hull for any noxious parasites  we may be harbouring.

Very politely but very firmly they confiscated all our bio hazardous fresh fruit and veg and meat and dairy products. We had expected this though and had been whittling our stores down to very little over the past few weeks.

Who you gonna call?...Aussie ghostbuster checking Legend's hull for biohazards..

We have had this happen to us before in Botswana where the danger of foot and mouth disease forces the officials to confiscate fresh meat at veterinary fences at various spots through out the country.

In Australia, they no doubt move your dangerous foodstuffs carefully to some sophisticated extermination facility. The Botswana customs fellows however, took away our meat and moved it  directly onto the barbecues outside their offices for later consumption!

Perhaps the Aussies have another ulterior motive for taking our food away though.. we immediately needed to buy more and no doubt the economy of Mackay experienced a marked upturn as the Oyster fleet arrived and headed for the supermarket and the mall.

After a few months in the Pacific with very little retail therapy available, most of the Oyster ladies were ready for a shopping extravaganza.

Shopping Extravaganza...the difficult part is packing it all away...and then remembering where you put everything!

I was a little out of practise though and had forgotten that when in a mall, one avoids making eye contact with  the ladies at the  cosmetics counters at all costs!

My first trip to the mall entailed a very expensive encounter with one of those Dead Sea Salt sales people who, in the words of a fellow shopper, " should have a restraining order against them! "

Aussie predator...just as deadly as a cosmetic saleslady...approach at your own peril!

My credit card took the blow manfully. Al was little less forgiving but I did get a free plastic handbag to show for the financial ambush! The promised wrinkle reduction that lured me into their clutches has yet to happen!

I did get a new hat though so the mall was not a total disaster! (Al complaining that the hat locker is full to overflowing though!)