Bundaberg, Mon Repos and the baby mutant turtles.

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Yesterday, (16.03.06) we didn't write as all we did was lay on the beach in Noosa and went for a brief walk around the National park. Oh but we did see another wild koala! Big guy he was.

17.03.06
This morning we caught the 9.35am bus to Bundaberg (home of Bundaberg rum). This trip was going to take us around 7 hours when it is only really a couple of hours up the road! How annoying. These are public transport buses but are full with travellers, which shows you how busy the east coast of Australia is.

We arrived at our hostel at about 5pm. Now the reason we have come here is to see the turtles. As soon as we got booked into our hostel we found out about the nightly turtle viewings and got booked on for that night. So we had a little walk around the town and got picked up at 6.15pm.

The guy that picked us up was called Rod, very nice, he started explaining about our night, the turtles and what to expect.
It was about a 15 minute drive to Mon Repos.

When we got there we got to skip the queue and be in the first group as we were in a tour group, which was good. There is a myth about this place that it is a first come first served system, we thought that as well but it's not true, so there must have been people there that had been waiting ages.

After Rod had told us lots of information about the turtles we got a call to go down onto the beach. There were about 50 people in each group. As we made our way onto the beach you could feel the eagerness from the people to get the best viewing position, which meant as usual manners were missing a little.

As we got to where the baby turtles where hatching the Ranger told us to make a circle around the nest, (which are dug at around 50 cm deep by the mums back legs and in like an upside down funnel shape). As we took our places all of a sudden these little turtles heads started popping out of the sand for their first breath of fresh air (they had been under the sand for about 7-8 weeks) and we were there to witness it! As when they are hatched the first thing they head for is the light of the moon, which tonight was a bright full one. We weren't allowed to use torches or flash cameras which was a shame as we were witnessing something quite amazing.
There were over 100 turtles. All of these hatchlings were girls because the sex is determined by the temperature in the sand. Anything over 26 degrees becomes a girl. Anything over 32 is cooked and under 26 is a boy. This year like maybe years to come has not been a good one for the amount of turtles and survival rate of the eggs as the problem with global warming is causing the sand to heat up too much.

As they came out of the sand the ranger put them into a netted area on the sand so she could make sure they all came out and all made it to the sea, some didn't make it and later she dug up the nest to expose the unhatched eggs and a couple of dead babies, which was sad and to think that it is all caused by humans wrecking the earth.
As they get into the sea to start their new lives they are faced with all sorts of dangers as they head for the continental shelf and safety, if its not the plastic bags, or the sharks that kill them maybe a ships rudder or a trawlers net might do the business and only 1 in 1000 actually surrvive to adulthood which is 30 years old.
As some were crawling out of their nest some were very lethargic as they were so hot and needed to cool down. Whilst others were eager to get their little feet wet for the first time. The ranger then passed a couple of unfortunate ones to have cameras shoved into their faces and blinded by flash cameras (including ours) I Andy wished them best of luck and to go get em in there new life!!
We all then made 2 lines lines down the beach and the turtles were let out at the top of the beach, there were people strategicaly positioned down to the sea shining torches at the beach for the turtles to follow, this was good to see, some of the bumps in the sand must have felt like mountains to these little things, as they got to the waters edge they were faced for the first time with the power of the Pacific ocean. And off they went!!

After all the turtles had finally made it into the sea and were on their way, we headed back to the information centre where we were hoping to meet up with the rest of our group, hopefully for a more personal experience with our guide (watching the turtles that is).
We were greeted by a ranger who told us and a few more people that there were some more hatchlings down on the beach. So off we went for our second dose of turtle mania. It was more of the same but not quite as busy which was good. But this time disaster and nature had done its bad deed! The first batch produced 101 hatchlings and only a few dead or un-hatched, this time there were only 75 alive with 41 dead and 5 double yolkers. The ranger was very distressed! He spent ages analysing the eggs. Then we formed our lines and led the group into the ocean for their midnight swim into sharkland (we were also told that this area at night is like a sharkfest!).

We learnt that the turtles head from here over to Chile, up the coast at Chile then do a full circle back to Oz where the land wherever they want.
What always happens and what is quite amazing is the fact that the females always return to where they were born to lay their eggs.

After our second dose we or at least I Andy were keen for that personal touch with our guide so we headed back to to the centre but there were a couple in our group who weren't keen so Rod took them back whilst we hung around for an hour. At this time it was getting really late at night and we were getting tired.
As our guide was away we saw another ranger and he told us that there were going to be no more hatchlings tonight so we had hung about for nothing. But we did see a Possum later on.

We came to Bundaberg to see the turtles, we didn't know what we were going to get, whether it was going to be adults on the beach or adults laying eggs or if we were going to get chance to see them anyway as the viewings finish on the sunday, so as always with our travels things came up trumps, we achieved what we wanted.
So back at midnight for a bit of beans on toast.
Then bed!!!!

18.03.06
Our second day in Bundaberg, where everyone seems to be picking fruit! (As soon as we stepped off the bus yesterday someone from a hostel immediatley assumed we had come to work and told us straight away it was quiet at the moment) Last night Rod our guide gave us a card for monday for fruitpicking.

We did some washing and booked our bus to Agnes Water up the coast and our hostel Cool Bananas which we have heard so many good things about!

We then had a walk around the town which is quite nice as far as a town goes. But listen to this! We go into Dimmys, a cheap shop full of rubbish. I, Andy see fishing rods and reels $9.99 each! I take them both to the counter and the cashier who I had earlier asked how much the reels were charges me $9.99 for them both RESULT I now have fishing tackle.
So off we went to get my tackle out at the local river for the day. As I was setting up. THE ROD SNAPPED!! Quality so we took it back and got a new one. After a few hours and a few nibbles on my tackle I caught a little Bream! It was nice sat on the side of the river, very peaceful.
Whilst I was fishing Melissa checked out our Wwoof book for another farm as we were looking for our next adventure and something to inspire us in this massive country, she found a couple that we will email later.
That night we had a nice home cooked chicken dinner with veg cooked in Sue style from Sydney.

19.03.06
Packed our stuff chilled out at the hostel as Mel had managed to get the people to let us still use their facilities and at 5:40 got on the Greyhound bus to Agnes Water/1770.
We will tell you later why its called 1770. I bet you can't wait!

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Photos

Hatchlings
Aren't they cute?

Hatchlings
They felt quite hard and rough. Their fins were strong.

On their way!
Shark bait.

Comments

[aunty lil uncle gud]

hello andrew and mellisa hope you are both allright we have been looking at the turtles they look so small we love reading about your holiday it sounds as if you are enjoying it. we are going to benidorm on tuesday not as exiting as where you are though. keep well and look after yourselfs see you soon lots of love aunty lil and uncle gud