Our night in Hervey Bay after our Fraser Island trip was a good laugh to sit around with our fellow campers and enjoy a pizza feast. Unfortunately, the night ended badly with Sally losing her iPhone. We were all up until 3am turning the room upside down and emptying her bags trying to find it. It wasn't until the next morning we found out another room had also been robbed, so we could only assume the thieves struck our room too. The other girls got their bags stolen including passports and all their valuables, but luckily, a member of the public found the bag dumped on the street and it was located back to the hostel. The only things missing were her money, iPod and a bottle of vodka. I think that says a lot about the type of robber, I think they just snatched whatever they could see for a quick buck. Therefore, we spent most of the following morning waiting around for the police to come, take a statement and be able to give a crime number so the girls could all claim on their insurance. All in all, it was just a little annoying reminder to be vigilant with our valuables.

With that sorted, we caught the free bus to the coach station and said goodbye to our Fraser Island friends, no doubt we will bump into many of them along the next few weeks as we are mainly all heading the same way.

We took our bus to arrive a couple of hours later in Bundaberg. Here we are staying with the brother of Haddon who we stayed with in Barraba, Hugh, his wife Liz and aptly named dog, 'Dog'. Liz met us from the coach station and brought us back to their house. The house is on a little farm with cows and horses and is very pretty. They have a little lake on the property and the gardens are maintained really well. It is secluded from the road so is nice and quiet. Ruth and Jade each have a double bedroom to themselves, whilst Sally and I are sharing a twin. It is nice not to be sleeping in bunkbeds for once! I think we have all slept so well after being up half the night looking for Sally's iPhone, camping on the island for two nights, and our early start the day before that, I think we all had a lot of sleep to catch up on! Hugh arrived home from work and has decided we should just enjoy the sun and not have to worry about doing any work for them. They have both been very kind allowing us to use their spare car and we have just tried to help out keeping the house clean and tidy where we can!

On our first day in Bundaberg, we had a good lie in and utilised the washing machine. Our clothes were starting to smell really bad after the sweaty camping trip and no showers for a few days! My camera unfortunately (but not unsurprisingly) broke in Noosa so I ventured out to buy a new one and we had a little explore of the town, although it really isn't that big! While in Bundaberg, we were planning on going to the loggerhead turtle nesting beach as it is the time of year when the turtles lay their eggs, and the baby turtles are hatching. As it is on a protected beach, tickets must be bought through the information centre as only 300 people are allowed to go a night. When we tried to book on we were informed it was all booked up the nights we were there. When Jade asked about the following night, a rude man told her she could try and book online but it was all booked up. Later that night we checked online and there was 150 tickets available! So, we decided to have a change of plan. We checked with Hugh and Liz, and then decided to take the car up to Agnes Water and the town of 1770 for a day, and then return to Bundaberg and stay an extra night in Bundaberg to see the turtles. Originally we planned to spend three nights in Bundaberg and a night in 1770, whereas now we were spending all four nights in Bundaberg with a day trip to 1770. We were so glad we did this as when we arrived in 1770, there was literally nothing there! Just a mariner and a cafe. It was nice but nothing worth spending more than a few hours there. We drove back to Agnes water, which consists of a little beach and some local shops. We were expecting a lot more. We bumped into someone we camped with on Fraser Island and he said he was so disappointed with the town and had been really bored since he arrived. It was nice for a day, just a little dull. We are noticing the sea is getting warmer the further north we go, it is a little like stepping into a warm bath now!

Later on in the afternoon of our first day, we drove over to Bangara beach, which was quite a rocky beach, but nice and quiet. On the way home we spotted some more kangaroos so stopped the car to get a closer look. They let us get quite close before hopping away. They still amaze us to watch the jumping along. We returned to the house for our third BBQ tea of the week, I think we are really embracing the Ozzy way of living now!

The next day we went back over to Bangara beach at high tide so Ruth and I could go snorkelling in the rock pools. It was really interesting seeing all the different coloured fish swimming in there.
Hugh and Liz have recently bought a property on the beach front that they are renovating, so we paid a visit to that. It will be a really great house when the work is all finished with fantastic views. We then drove over to Elliott Heads beach, which was very nice but very hot! The warm sea doesn't do much to cool you down in this weather.

That evening we were booked to go to Mon Repos beach to see the Loggerhead turtles. We arrived at the tourist information centre and spent some time going through the information centre. We then had to sit in an amphitheatre and wait. Rangers and researchers patrol the 1.5k beach for any turtle activity while we watched an information DVD to distract us. The turtles lay and hatch between November and March, so they could come anytime and there is no guarantee you will see anything. Mon Repos is one of the biggest hatching sites and areas for returning Loggerhead turtles in the South Pacific. As the turtles like to lay their eggs on dark beaches, lights are limited, with no cameras or phones allowed at specific times. This meant the amphitheatre we were sitting in was really dark with a lovely view of the thousands of stars in the sky. We were split into groups when we arrived and we were in the third group. Groups one and two were called up to some activity quite early on, while we waited about another hour. Eventually, we were called up and went down to the beach. As the team like you to see something rather than nothing, we saw some turtle hatchlings being released to the sea. These had had some research done with them in the centre and we got to stroke them and take photos. A 'light tunnel' was then created by our torches for the tiny turtles to follow towards the sea. Baby turtles instinctively follow the lowest light horizon towards the sea, usually created by the moon. Apparently they need to crawl down the beach themselves as they imprint the Earths magnetic fields and orientate themselves so the females can return to the beach in the future to lay their own eggs. We also watched the moon rise that evening, it was huge and orange! On average a Loggerhead turtle lays 127 eggs and doesn't mature to lay eggs until around the age of 30 years. Of all the hatchlings that go to the sea, it is estimated that only 1 out of 1000 survive. So, we watched all the turtles scurrying down to the sea, some a lot slower than others. By this time it was around 10pm. The guide said we were welcome to stay longer as they patrol the beach all night so we still may have a chance of seeing an adult Loggerhead making a nest and laying her eggs. We decided to wait a little longer and carry on watching the information DVD. After a little while we were told some hatchlings were emerging from their nest in the sand. Obviously if we went down to this we may miss an adult. As we had already seen the hatchlings, we decided to wait. Around 11.15pm, the ranger came running out, an adult had come ashore and was digging her nest. We were rushed down to the beach and watched a large Loggerhead lay her eggs. She had already dug the hole for the eggs, so we could approach her. Researchers were taking measurements and tagging her. Once all the eggs were laid, she filled in her nest and covered her body pit. This took quite a while. Once the turtle had returned to the sea, the researchers decided the eggs should be moved higher upshore as they were below the tide line and the nest was at risk of being flooded. The researchers dug down and pulled out all 121 of her eggs without rotating or shaking them too much. They dug another hole and we were required to help carry the little eggs up. It was really special to help out and give the eggs a better survival chance. While we were doing this, another turtle came ashore, so not to scare it away as they want the turtle to choose this beach to lay, we all had to remain silent and told to "look like trees". When the eggs were all relocated and covered and the next turtle settled into her spot, we could leave the beach. By this time it was 1am! Turtle time is quite slow!

Ruth and I got up early the next day to take Liz to work, do some washing and tidy up. We took a trip to the Bundaberg rum distillery, where we went around the factory and process of rum production. In some areas of the factory where the rum is stored in huge vats, there was 75% alcohol vapours in the air so we were all a little lightheaded during the tour. We then moved on to the tasting bar where we all discovered we officially do not like rum! Sally and I tried one rum-based liquor also containing chocolate and coffee. It was disgusting!

Tonight we are taking an overnight bus to Airlie beach where we will get on board our boat to sail around the Whitsunday islands for two days.
Considering everyone told us there is nothing to do in Bundaberg, we feel we have exhausted the list of tourist attractions! It would have been difficult to see them without a car so we are very grateful to Hugh and Liz for letting us borrow their car and giving us a lovely place to stay and chill out before continuing on our journey. :)

Amy. x