QLD - Gemfields to Bundy

After a luxurious nights sleep in a cabin, we headed off on our next long drive for our second visit to Bundaberg. We went there in November to see turtles laying eggs on the beach, and we wanted to go back and see some hatching. As it was a long drive we split the driving, Ev doing the first 450k. Marc took over once we hit Bruce Highway and after about 30 mins, when heading down hill, the car picked up a bit of speed... just as an undercover cop car went passed and he quickly circled round and pulled us over. By that time we were going back up the other side of the hill so he didn’t buy the down hill excuse, nor the poor confused tourist approach. Marc was given a breath test and we got fined £150 or the equivalent of $10 for every km over the limit (25kmph over). It was so fitting that we only got caught speeding on our first and last drives in Oz!

When we arrived in Bundy, we knew just the place to camp - Turtle Sands, the same campsite we stayed at last time. It’s nice camping on the beach, but as we found, there is little shelter from the elements here. The wind was blowing a gale when we started setting up, and ironically for our last night of camping we needed to use every bit of equipment for the very first time. Every guy rope and peg was needed to make sure we didn’t blow away.

The turtle watching was just as great an experience as the first time round. We had a bit of a nervous wait as we were in the 3rd viewing group. The hatchlings only hatch when the sand has cooled to a night-time temperature, and as it was a cloudy evening, the guides weren’t sure if it would cool down enough. The first turtles didn’t hatch for a couple of hours, when group 1 got called off and then shortly after then next hatchlings broke free. In the meantime we were shown some interesting clips about the nature reserve and had a Q & A time with some of the biologists. Whilst we were waiting round we also got to see a mummy possum with her baby clinging to her and some giant green frogs that came out to visit us.

  Mummy & baby possum

Famous Green Frog

As the 1st hatchlings were high priority loggerheads they were all collected up tagged, weighed and checked over by the research team. When they were done they were to be released at roughly the same spot to where they broke free from their nest. So we were lucky to be called out so see them being released and even better, we were allowed to hold some of them. It’s so cute to see their little flippers working over time! So how to get them into the big ocean? We had to point all our torches on the sand in the direction of the sea as the turtles then think this was the reflection of the moon on the ocean. Their instinct is to head to this light rather than the sound of the waves. So we were told to form a line from the hatching point to the sea and shine the torches on the ground so the turtles moved towards the light and through our legs. One by one the turtles made it to the sea and were whisked away by the waves. Of course, there were stupid ones who didn’t want to follow the light and whilst we moved them back into line, we don’t expect they made it too far out to sea as the survival rate of these hatchlings to full adults aren’t in their favour! On our way back, we had to abruptly come to a stop as we were told a Loggerhead had come ashore to lay eggs, unfortunately there were some very loud tourists who kept taking pictures and scared her off before she was settled, and hopefully she tried again later that evening.

Cute little turtle

So tiny!

Follow the light

Where the magic happens, little baby turtle make their way to the ocean only to return years later to lay their eggs and so the circle continues...

Next day, we just couldn’t leave Bundy without a trip to the Ginger Beer factory, and we picked up a few GB treats to keep us going for our last week in Oz.

We then headed back to Brisbane; this also meant that we had now come to the end of our driving and camping chapter of our travels. Whilst there are so many organised coach and hostel combo tours for travellers and we may have missed out on some of the traveller social life, we think we had the better deal with hiring a car and camping. This gave us much more flexibility as we saw so many things and never really knew what each day would bring us.