Bulgara to Airlie Beach

December 12th and 13th

Our original plan was to drive straight to a small place called Bulgara which was just outside Bundaberg to do some turtle watching, but the weather had different ideas.

The torrential rain of the last few days meant that the Bruce Highway was closed to the north due to flooding so we had to turn back and head for Hervey Bay for a bit of respite. It kept raining though in pretty biblical proportions and Hervey Bay was no better so we had to just pull up and wait it out for a few hours.

Fortunately the highway eventually cleared and we raced up it to get there in time to see some of our scaly green chums and we just about made it.

The turtle rookery was at Mon Repos just down the road from Bulgara and after a long wait on the pitch black beach with a lot of other tourists in our group we got lucky. A massive loggerhead turtle crawled straight past us up the beach and started digging a nest ready to lay. We all had to wait to let it settle and start the laying process and we could then all gather round it and turn some lights on. Apparently once they start they don't stop (a bit like opening a can of Pringles), whatever the distraction so we were allowed to take a few photos as well.

The whole process was absolutely amazing and we watched as the turtle laid about 50 eggs and then filled in the deep burrow with its massive flippers before heading off back down to the beach to the sea. A few scientists busied themselves taking measurements from the turtle and then excavating the nest to move the eggs a bit further up the beach to a safer place once it had gone.

Once the egg was excavated we were all allowed to carry some eggs to the new nest which was pretty cool and they were all pretty soft which was a bit weird.

All in all an amazing experience and well worth us both getting absolutely munched by loads of mossies.

Stopped the next day at a really weird campsite just off the highway after a long drive. Not a soul else there and was absolutely red hot with the bathroom and shower housing a few green tree frogs which was actually pretty cool. We were also inundated with some mental turkeys at one point who invaded our van site for no apparent reason.