Rum do for Prince Charles on jaunt Down Under
THE Prince of Wales created his own blend of rum at one of Australia’s most famous distilleries yesterday, before confessing he was a chemistry dunce at school.
Presented with three test tubes of alcohol and instructed to mix them, Charles joked: “It’s like chemistry. I was never any good at chemistry at school.”
Looking relaxed, he sniffed and swirled like an expert as he sampled and examined a range of blends at the Bundaberg Distillery in Queensland.
Stepping up to a podium in front of hundreds of well-wishers, he shared his sympathies over devastation from flooding and storms that have hit the area in recent years.
On the third day of his week-long Australia tour, he also went to Lady Elliot Island on the Great Barrier Reef to discuss the challenges facing the world’s coral reefs.
The widow and children of the late wildlife expert Steve Irwin were there to meet him. Steve’s wife Terri praised Charles for his leadership in conservation. She said: “He is an inspiration.”
He was also reunited with four sisters who used to spend their weekends with him when he was 17. Jane Tozer, Amanda Boxshall, Penny Jenner and Lisa Tozer were little girls when he stayed at their family’s dairy farm during two terms he spent at college in Victoria back in 1966.
They presented him with a signed photo of them with the prince, taken on the day he left.