Our bus didn't depart Airlie Beach until midnight, so after saying goodbye to the rest of the family at lunchtime, we headed into town to see what it looked like when the sun was out! It was a big improvement and we spent the rest of the day by the lagoon and watching the activity on the water.

Our bus arrived late, and as we boarded we heard the now familiar story that flooding was expected en route so we may not make it to Bundaberg. We were lucky to pass through Rockhampton just before the river banks burst and the town was flooded, so very lucky again!

Arriving in Bundaberg, we caught up on some sleep and wandered around town, waiting for dusk, when we were off to the Mon Repos beach turtle rookery. This time of year is both nesting and hatching season, so we hoped to see either the female turtle climbing up into the dunes to make a nest and lay her eggs, or the tiny hatchlings crawling out of the nest and running down to the sea. We were really lucky to see 144 match box sized loggerhead turtles appearing out of the sand. We were watching under the supervision of two rangers - turtles are endangered species and only 1 in 1000 reach sexual maturity, so the rangers do everything they can to ensure that none of the hatchlings get caught in grass roots, preventing them from making the dash to the sea. A couple of the hatchlings were shown around to us - amazing how small they were. They then began the dash down to sea, really cool to watch the tiny creatures racing to the water. As the waves came up the beach, a few would get knocked off course and be washed back to shore, but eventually all the hatchlings made it out. They then embark on 'the lost years', floating around in the ocean's currents (but apparently not in family groups like in Finding Nemo!), before any survivors return to the beach that they were born at to mate, aged about 30.

After all the hatchlings had swum away, the rangers then had to dig up the nests, to check for any remaining survivors, and to count the number of egg shells. On the way back from the nesting site, we had to stop suddenly as the rangers torch caught sight of another hundred or so hatchlings running down the beach!

The next day, we caught an early bus to the surf beaches of Noosa. As we got closer, the weather got worse, and not keen for rain to disrupt play again, we decided to carry on down to Brisbane to meet up with Sophie, Jeff, Samuel and Haidee.