Bundaberg

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We were exhauted and went straight to bed when we arrived in Bundy at 11pm. The next day I went to the lovely botanical gardens down the road from us. There were hundreds of huge Egrets nesting in the trees there. Olly was too tired to move and watched the cricket all day instead!

The reason we went to Bundaberg was to go to Mon Repos, the most important sea turtle rookery in the world for loggerhead turtles. Almost as soon as we got to the rookery at 7pm there was already a turtle on the beach so we went straight down. It was a huge loggerhead (over 1m long) and it was her first time laying eggs (as she wasn't tagged) so she took a while. She dug out a 60cm deep hole with her flippers and layed 114 eggs inside. It was amazing to watch! She covered up the eggs and then had to turn herself around and go back to the ocean. It was a real struggle for her to get back. The ranger tagged the turtle so that they can keep track of her-the turtles lay about three lots of eggs each time they breed but only lay every four years. Because the turtle was new to it all she didn't lay her eggs far enough up the beach and the hole would have been flooded and the eggs ruined, so we played our part in the turtle conservation by moving the eggs to a hole that the ranger dug out further up the dunes. While we were watching this turtle we saw two others emerge from the water and come onto the beach to lay their eggs too. As it was a full moon the beach was completerly lit up. We were able to see another turtle laying and heading back to the ocean before a huge storm broke and we got absolutely soaked! It was such a good experience.

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Photos

First-time mum
This loggerhead turtle took a long time digging her nest, even longer before she started laying and then she had 104 ping-pong ball sized eggs to pop out - all before a crowd of about 30! (The water around her eyes could have been tears of pain, but the ranger assured us it was excess salt leaving her body).

104 eggs
The eggs ready to be moved to their new nest.

Relocation
After all that effort it turned out that the turtle chose a bad place for her nest! Charlie is helping to save the lives of 2 little hatchlings (although only 1 in 1000 reach maturity) by moving the eggs to a replica nest in the safety of the dunes.

Spam and eggs!
The eggs were round and just like ping-pong balls.

Turtle head
It was a struggle for her to turn back round and get back to the water.

Comments

[Mum]

Turtle Soup (only joking)
I think the turtles are just amazing and to think you were there to witness it all. David Attenborough had better watch out!!!

[joy.farrow]

!!!
now I am really really envious ...... I would have loved to have been there. xx