PADI POWER AND TURTLE POWER

We had read in the Lonely Planet that one of the cheapest places to get your PADI open water diving qualification was in the town of Bundaberg. We had never heard of the place but decided to give it a go as a way of helping to ease our budget deficit. We bombed up the highway early on Monday morning on the off chance that a course would be starting first thing. We were in luck, signed up at the dive school (which was run by the most laid back chap ever) and, before we knew it, had filled in some forms and were sitting in a doctor's surgery waiting to have a medical. That took up most of the morning (the waiting, not the medical) and, reassured by being given a clean bill of health, spent the rest of the day trying to stay awake while doing the theory part of the course.

Bundaberg (famous for sugar cane, ginger beer and rum) hadn't exactly been top of the list of must-see destinations on our trip but this was to be our home for the next four nights. We were perfectly happy, though, as it meant that we would soon be able to go diving in lots of new, exciting places like the Great Barrier Reef and South East Asia during the rest of our travels. Most nights we cooked our dinner on the free outdoor bbqs by the beach and spent the days doing our course.

Day two of the course was spent in the swimming pool with our friendly German instructor, Dagmar. We learnt all the exercises (taking your mask off, using your buddy's air supply, emergency assents, not drowning etc) on the poolside before doing them for real underwater. Having got used to the novelty of breathing underwater without drowning, we spent days three and four in the sea doing all the same exercises but with the added bonus of swimming with multi-coloured fish. We passed all the underwater tests which were straightforward compared to the near-certain death we faced above the water from the treacherously slippery rocks we had to clamber over carrying heavy oxygen tanks, and the rough waves we had to snorkel through as we fought against the current to get to the dive site whilst trying to avoid getting dashed on the rocks. Back on dry land in the classroom we passed the theory test which turned into a bit of a group effort and we are now qualified PADI divers.

The other highlight of Bundaberg was the night we spent at Mon Repos Turtle Sanctuary, an area of protected beach where turtles come to lay their eggs after dark. It has a really well-presented information area, and while we were waiting for the turtles to arrive, we listened to a very informative presentation from one of the rangers, followed by a lively question and answer session. We settled in for the evening waiting our turn to be called down to the beach to watch the turtles coming in. We were in the fourth group so were expecting a long wait, and were reminded that these weren't performing animals so we could be here for some time and possibly not see anything. But we were lucky, it was a busy night, and our group was called after an hour or so, and we were led down by the ranger to a turtle who had already laid its eggs and was in the process of covering them up. The turtle was huge, much bigger than we were expecting, and was a very impressive sight - but we were disappointed not to have seen the actual laying of the eggs and thought that would be the end of our night. Next thing we knew, however, the ranger got a message on his walkie-talkie that another turtle was lumbering up the beach in our direction. She came up literally a metre behind us, and the ranger fully expected her to turn round and head back to sea as soon as she saw the group of people, lights and noise, or because another turtle was in her eye line. But no, to his, and our, astonishment, she was seemingly oblivious to it all, and started digging a hole with her back legs in which to lay her eggs.

The turtle's back legs are so supple that it can dig a hole about 55cm deep, and scoop out the sand to create a little well, in one action. It was an amazing sight to see her then lay about 100 ping pong ball-shaped eggs one after another. Turtles lay eggs five times over a six week period and the ranger suspected that she was laying her last batch of eggs so couldn't give a damn where she laid them as long as she got them out and got back to sea as quickly as possible. We were able to touch the eggs and the turtle was measured by the research team before she covered up the hole and trudged back to sea. The ranger helped to lead her back to the water with his torch in a scene reminiscent of ET or Close Encounters with the alien returning to the mother ship. This was a really special night.