Rum, Turtles and 3 nights in a cell

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Days 117 - 120

Got up early for the free pancakes, checked out and sorted out changing boats for when we get to The Whitsundays as we found one we much preferred. Once that was all sorted we had lunch and jumped onboard the bus headed for Bundaberg. We arrived about 5 and were picked up and taken to our hostel - which turned out to be the coolest hostel EVER! It is a converted police station and we were staying in an old cell!! How cool is that! A little later we watched a syrup wrestling competition! It was pretty entertaining with the wrestlers slipping about all over the place in a giant paddling pool! Stuart particularly enjoyed the ladies fights! We had a couple of drinks then retired to our cell and watched tv - the prisoners here in Oz have it easy I tell ya!

We did boring domestic stuff in the morning then had a look around town. Had an hour in the pool before dinner. We got picked up at 6 and taken to Mon Repos - a beach renowned for it's turtles. We were there to (hopefully) watch baby loggerhead turtles emerging from their nest and making their way down to the ocean. We were warned that we might not see anything and that even if we do we might have to wait for hours, so we were prepared for the worst! After a short time we were called down to the beach where they spotted some little noses poking up out of the sand! We all sat around in a circle as we watched 84 of the little critters making their way out of their nest. It was amazing. Ordinarily, they would follow the light down to the ocean, heading for the horizon. However as they are pretty endangered the Rangers at the beach give them a helping hand to make sure they don't get lost or eaten on their way! As each one came out of the nest, the rangers put them into a little pen. When they were all out the ranger came around with one or two and you could put your hand underneath hers to feel the baby turtle's legs flapping about! It was cool and they were awesome! We then all stood in a line along the beach down to the ocean and the kids were in the middle shining torches. The turtles were then let loose and trampled down in a line to the big bad ocean where only 1/1000 of them will survive to adulthood. Boo hoo! When the last of them had started swimming the ranger dug up the nest to count the shells and see if there were any unhatched eggs. There were 12 unfertilised eggs and two that had died half way through their development. She also found two slow coaches that hadn't kept up with their brothers and sisters. It was such a great experience and made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside!!

In the morning we swapped rooms to a padded cell, where they used to keep the drunks andlunatics!! Both those boxes ticked then!!! We headed out to a market we'd read about but when we got to the place it was supposed to be, there was nothing there. We asked a lady about it and she said they'd been moved to another venue and did we want a lift there! How nice! We got there and it was like a school jumble sale!! I think we'll give up on our markets after our recent experiences! We walked back to the hostel and Carly spent the afternoon by the pool whilst Stuart watch The Premiership in the padded cell. In the evening we had a few beers and played pool on a weird pool table.

We checked out in the morning and walked in the blistering heat to the Bundaberg Rum distillary, stopping off at a cooperage on the way. We had a tour of the distillary which was pretty rubbish but all was forgiven when we received two free drinks each - the Rum ginger beer and lime was a winner! We got the bus back and chilled out in the hostel. We caught the 10pm bus to Airlie beach and spent the night on the bus. Nice!

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Photos

Carly getting it on with Bundy
Her new, less hairy fella

One for the boys
What with all the pic's of cute furry creatures I thought the lads might like this one!!