QLD - Rocky, Bundy & Mon Repos

From Eungella to Brisbane, there isnt a great deal to see and it's a bit of a long, uneventful drive. The two main towns are Rockhampton (Rocky) and Bundaberg (Bundy). Rocky, which is located on the Tropic of Capricorn, is known as the steak capital of Australia so we stopped here for the eve, and headed to The Great Western pub for dinner. This place is a rodeo venue, and after dinner we had a look around the arena where it all happens. They also hold concerts here, with the John Butler Trio due here in a few days. The meal itself wasn't quite as good as we were expecting, which wasn't really due to the food, but the bus load of American oldies which arrived minutes before we did. We had to wait ages for our food, and kept getting bumped by the tour guide who had a habit of standing next to our table and shouting out the food orders ;( So we decided to move tables. After dinner, we found the jukebox and put on a few tunes, and sunk a few balls on the pool table, which was a nice end to the evening...

Bundy is famous for its rum, and no trip here is complete without a tour of the distillery. This was pretty good, though the molasses was a bit stinky. As always, the best part of the tour is the tasting afterwards. We tried everything from Lemon Lime Bundy, to the Dark & Stormy (Ginger beer & Rum). The next day, we popped to the ginger beer factory, another beverage Bundy is also renowned for. Evelyn has also become quiet addicted to the stuff since Cairns so we just had to stop off here. We didn't have time for the tour, so went straight for the tastings and couldn't leave without buying half the store ;)

Lets not forget the main reason we came to Bundy, 10kms down the road is the coast and Mon Repos beach. Mon Repos is one of the best beaches in the world for watching turtles come ashore to lay eggs, and then watching the eggs hatch 8 weeks later. We pitched camp at the campsite right on the beach, and sat on the beach with our pizza hut dinner & ginger beer, which was nice as dusk set in. We then headed down to the info centre to watch the turtles. Luckily, we brought our tickets early, so were in group 1 - there's no guarantee that any turtles will come ashore in an evening its best to be in the first viewing group (there have been fist fights before as people try to get into the first group!!).

Luckily, tonight was a good night and we only had to wait about 30mins before being called to the beach to see the first turtle. We headed down, but had to wait on the beach for another 30mins, as another turtle came ashore. The turtles are easily disturbed by light or movement (they hear on a lower frequency than human voices so noise isn't a problem), and no-one is allowed near the turtles, whilst they are finding a suitable place or then digging the hole in which to lay their eggs (about 30mins). Only once they begin laying eggs, can we get close enough to see and light up the area. In this instance, we were waiting for two turtles, and the 2nd turtle got scared off by the 1st so decided to head back to the sea & try again later.

We then got a good spot behind the Loggerhead turtle, and got to see her lay over 150 eggs (takes about 45 mins), fill in the hole with sand (20mins), and then head back to the ocean (15mins) by looking for the light of the moon reflecting off the ocean. As you can see, the whole process takes a couple of hours, and must be incredibly tiring for the turtle. And they do this up to 6 times during the breeding season, laying almost 1000 eggs. Of these, only one will survive to adulthood and come back to the beach on which they were born in 30 years time! This is why they are a protected species as their population is decreasing considerably.

Because the loggerhead is endangered, the guides take extra care of the eggs, and if they are laid too low down the beach (if they are below the hide tide line, the eggs drown) the guides dig them up and relocates them further up the beach. In this case, an egg relocation was needed, so the guides took measurements of the hole and replaced this higher up the beach. We then helped relocate the eggs, and carried some up the beach to the new hole :-) The eggs are the size of ping pong balls and really delicate.

When we got back to base, another turtle had just landed on shore, so we joined up with group 2 and headed back to the beach. This one was a flatback, and was just as beautiful.

In the morning, we headed back to this part of the beach to find the turtle tracks and reminisce about the night before. We'll definitely be back in Feb when we're back in Oz, so that we can see the babies hatching...