At Loggeheads in Bundaberg

---

Moving on from Hervey Bay to Bundaberg, I was booked on the 13:10 greyhound bus and arrived at 2:25 a short journey for a change. The hostel called feeding grounds was recommended by Sheryl at the friendly, had rung them and booked in for 2 nights.
The courtesy bus picked me up from the bus station an on arrival Rod advised there are 7 guests tonight so everyone has a dorm to themselves unless travelling with others. When I rang the hostel to book they asked if I wanted to do the two main trips which are the footprints turtle tour and the Bundaberg rum tour so said yes as the rum tour was the main reason for stopping in here.
The turtle tour left the hostel at 6pm and we were advised we may be out until about 2am or later.
We were taken to Morno beach which is where the loggerhead turtles come ashore to lay the eggs. We got to the info centre at 7pm and was advised to sit and watch the dvd’s about the turtles. At 7:30 we were called to the north shore station and met by 2 ranger guides who advised they had spotted a turtle coming out of the sea to lay eggs. On the way across to the beach area where the turtle had been sighted we were stopped by another ranger who had spotted hatching turtles make the way to the beach. We were taken to the nest and the rangers checked the nest to ensure there were no trapped little turtles, on examination there were 33 trapped and 1 that did not make it. According to the records kept by the rangers the eggs were layed on the 22 Nov 06.
We then returned to the info centre as there are about 300 people waiting to go look at turtles so we watched dvds then at 10pm we were called again to the north shore and was told that a turtle had come out to lay eggs. On arrival the loggerhead turtle had started digging the nest and some 30-45 mins later started laying the eggs the ranger counter 76 eggs and the tag advised that it was the fourth lay of the season. The turtle then covered the nest and returned to the sea.

The ranger advised that they operate on the beach 365 days a year to watch for the hatchings and turtles nesting on new years eve they sighted 38 turtles coming to nest you would think that the turtles would have a night off and give the rangers a free night. We arrived back at the hostel at1:30am.
I only found out about the tour due to the friendly hostel saying about it and apparently it is listed in the Lonely Planet as one of the attractions to do in the state of Queensland.

---