Our next major destination was Hervey Bay however that was a good 2 drives away so be broke up the driving with a couple of stopovers the first being the industrial town of Rockhampton. Barely worth a mention as it involved nothing more than a mind numbingly boring drive as Australia is not exactly what you would call a pretty country and with nothing more than field upon field of red dirt and the occasional highway hamburger to put you off stopping for lunch for a good half hour or so! We arrived at Rockhampton in time for Michael to almost kill himself by going for a run around the adjacent rugby field and on returning to the van exclaimed "I am so unfit, is this what it feels like when you exercise because now I know why you hate it so much"! Thanks for that Michael but I got the last laugh as it took him most of the night just to stop sweating and that is one very good reason why they should ban exercise in hot countries.It was another early start the next morning our destination being the town of Bundaberg famous for the Australian Bundaberg Rum (a staple of any Australian mans diet and in my opinion absolutely hummin)! Our plans in Bundaberg didn't involve their rum or the tour round the factory where it is made. We were here to hopefully see some giant loggerhead turtles lay their eggs! We arrived in time to check into the campsite rather conveniently located beside the turtle rookery before heading up to the information site to check out the deal with the turtles. For obvious reasons the public are not allowed onto the beach so as an alternative they offer ranger tours that allow you a close up look at the whole process with minimal disruption to the turtles. We had to pre book our tickets and then report back to the information centre at 6.45pm. I was keen to be one of the first onto the beach to see the turtles so we arrived a little early and managed to be 3rd in the queue. Unfortunately when the ranger arrived to explain how the evening would work the order that you went to the beach was predetermined by the time you booked your tickets and given we had only booked ours a few hours before I wasn't feeling optimistic. We had been placed in group 2 and we were the first 2 members in that group to check in so I felt a little better until the man in front explained that him and his two young kids had been here the previous night and by 11.30pm there were still no turtles and so they had to leave with the kiddies and were back tonight to try again. It had mentioned in the literature that you could be at the centre for up to six hours, I had just assumed they were exaggerating! At the mention of the possibility of being here a while the ranger mentioned that 2 people had waited the previous night until 2am before seeing a turtle, we were in for a long night! We started the night in the information centre looking at all the boards reading up on the turtles we were desperate to see. We had barely read the first billboard when suddenly the ranger was shouting for group 1 as they had a turtle already! Feeling our spirits lifted it was really nice to see all of group 1 getting excited to see a turtle so off the went to the boardwalk. Only a few seconds later they were calling for the first 12 members of group 2 to go to the boardwalk too. As it turned out lady luck was shining on us again and as twelve members of group 1 had not checked in we had been promoted and within an hour of our arrival we were off to see a giant turtle, I could barely contain myself so much so Michael had to tell me to calm down! By this point it was pitch black at the beach front and with no lights or torches allowed as they would upset the turtles it was a precarious amble along the dunes to reach the turtle. In order to not disturb her we had to come in from behind and on arrival she was blissfully unaware of our presence. By the time we had arrived she had already dug out a hole with her flippers and was getting ready to start laying her eggs. A small pen torch was in the hole to allow us to be able to see her laying the eggs. We will never forget that first sight, the turtle was absolutely massive about the length of a shopping trolley and of a similar width, it really takes your breath away. It was only a few minutes before the small ping pong ball sized eggs started to drop into the sand, 147 of them to be exact. When she was almost finished laying the eggs she was relaxed enough that we were allowed to walk to the front and get a better look at the magnificent mum in action. Once at the front the ranger turned on more light so we were able to get a better look at her and take just a few photos before the ranger checked her tag to tell us more about her. It didn't take long for the ranger to realise that she was untagged and this therefore told us that this was her first time laying eggs! This would therefore explain why she had not picked the safest spot to dig her hole, it was too near the high tide and this left the eggs susceptible to being washed away. The first job was to put a new tag on the turtle so that they would know who she was when she returned for her second clutch (there would be three in total this season). Watching the ranger pierce her flipper with the tag was emotional as it was clearly uncomfortable and when the tag went through her flipper she turned her head towards us and opened her mouth to display her obvious discomfort. I had to feel a little sorry for the big girl as it didn't look pleasant however it was essential for the study of the species and within a few seconds she seemed to forget all about it and was busy filling in the nest with sand. Once the nest was secure the massive loggerhead began to make her way back to the ocean and as long as we stood behind her we were able to follow her all the way until she disappeared underwater with her deed for the night accomplished. Unfortunately as I mentioned earlier if the eggs were left in their current nest the high tide would wash them away so as a group we were given the rare and added bonus of getting to dig up the nest and then assist in the transfer of the eggs to their new nest for the next 8 weeks. This has to be one of the coolest things we have ever done and I know I say that all the time but it was amazing. Once the eggs had been dug up and counted by the ranger we were then given three each to carry over and deposit in the new nest. The statistics for their survival to adult hood make for grim reading with only 1 in every 1000 ever making it to adulthood however I like to think that the little kisses I gave my eggs will help them to maybe be amongst the survivors!! Once we had deposited our eggs and filled in the nest it was time to head back to the information centre to finish reading about the magnificent beast we had just witnessed and also watch a couple of short films on the loggerhead turtles. If you visit the rookery in January and February you can be lucky enough to watch the baby turtles scramble from their nest down to the ocean to begin their fight for survival however we will clearly miss out on that one so we had to settle for a video of it instead and whilst not as good as the real thing is was a nice way to end what had been an unforgettable night.