Hideaway.
First stop, The Hideaway Station Hotel in Tiaro, Queensland. It was a hot day for an outdoor lunch, but a quick summer rain sort of helped to cool things off. Lily and Ty got to burn off some energy after being cooped up in the car for 3 hours. If you recall – hotels are actually bars/restaurants. Many have rooms to rent for the night if you have had a few too many stubbies. Not exactly 5 star facilities, but would do the trick to keep you from getting behind the wheel.

Bargara.
We got checked into our hotel and wanted to take a walk down the esplanade to check out the shopping and dining options in Bargara. And then the skies opened up and it down poured. We stood under the entry shade cloth for about a half hour waiting for the storm to pass. Ty was acting like Mr. Tough Guy and went out to play in the rain. He lasted longer than I thought he would before he complained that he was wet.

When the rain let up, we walked into town for dinner. Pretty sleepy… There is a nice restaurant, a tavern, a couple fish and chips joints. Hmmmm. Turns out if you don’t have a booking you have no chance to get a table at the nice restaurant. Lots of accommodations, not nearly enough restaurants… But at least the town has a great park.

And bugs. Really flipping big bugs.

Bundy.
Bundaberg is known for its rum and soft drinks. We didn’t feel like doing the rum tour with the kiddos in tow, so we just went to the gift shop. Had to buy a coozie. We also went to a little woodworkers shop that makes little kegs. Ty got a kick out of watching the guy work.

Bowl.
And then we decided we were too stinking hot and we changed our plans. We were going to go bowling the evening of New Years Eve but decided we needed a break from the heat and went over lunch. We bowled one game (who knew my husband had such mad skills on the bowling alley). I, on the other hand, really sucked. It’s pretty bad when I don’t break 100 with bumpers… They had a gated off area for Lily to play in – she loved sliding down into the ball pit. Jay and Ty did some Wild West Shootout game, and then we ate lunch. Shortly after, Ty and I went to play glow in the dark Jurassic Park mini golf…but Ty wasn’t feeling well so we only made it through 2 holes. We went back to the hotel and rested up to give his tummy a break.

Fireworks.
Bargara had a pretty decent fireworks display on New Years Eve. The kids played in the park while we waited for the show.

I went to get fish and chips, and while I was waiting for our food, poor Ty’s tummy decided it was really not OK. After some drama (I won’t go into details to spare him some embarrassment), he insisted on staying for the fireworks. I’m not sure if it was the heat or the cheeseburger, but I felt so bad for my little man. He was in good hands with the best dad in the planet. Ty got to ride in the stroller as we walked along the beach watching the fireworks. It was really pretty.

Craters.
The Boffins are Baffled. No idea who the Boffins are, but they have a good reason to be baffled. Several craters were discovered on some property near Bundaberg, and nobody knows how they were created. For $19 (plus a 1.25% surcharge for using a credit card) we got to see them for ourselves. Well, first we walked through the fairy garden (wow) and then we walked around the craters. And then we walked through the machine shed of rusty old machinery (random), and then Lily said “whoa” when she saw the dinosaur, and then Ty got excited about a swing set that was probably as old as the craters. We ate some ice cream and all discussed our theories about how the craters were created. I think meteors. Jay thinks fairies made them (of course! That would explain the fairy garden). Ty thought it was dinosaurs. The world may never know.

Boffins.
I had to look it up.

Turtles!!!
So after much anticipation, we finally were able to go to Mon Repos Turtle Rookery to (hopefully) see some turtles. We are here right near the end of nesting season and the early front end of the hatching season, so we went with low expectations- no guarantee with wild animals. We arrived at 6:45 PM and were prepared to wait. They opened up the gates early as a turtle was already in the beach. Unfortunately only group 1 got to go to the beach. And as I predicted, we were in group 5 (should have booked earlier). While we waited, we read books about turtles, did a craft to “make” a turtle out of drift wood and pumice stones, and watched a presentation about turtles. And we watched groups 2, 3 and 4 head off to the beach. The kids were hanging in there but were getting antsy and tired. We kept telling ourselves that this is a once in a lifetime experience and we have to be patient – with the turtles and the kids… Finally at 9:30 they announced that turtle #5 had arrived!! Ty was so excited. He put on his flips, grabbed the water bottles, and we were off. We walked along a dark path through the bush – jay chuckled and said, “did you ever think we would walk through the bush in pitch darkness?” I tried not to think about that – or the giant huntsman spider and possum that was hanging out near the toilets…

We were herded like cattle down onto the beach, and holy crap!! There was a mama Loggerhead digging her nest. And right next to her was another one finishing up! And there was another one making her way up the beach! Oh! My! Gosh!!!!!! Ty got to go right up front with the other kids – front row seats to one of the coolest shows Mother Nature has to offer. Our turtle had a satellite tracking device on her. She had been monitored for 37 years, so the scientists were super excited to see her come ashore. The scientists were all over the turtles, taking measurements, touching the turtles, and they don’t mind a bit. Unfortunately something caused her to spook and before she laid her eggs, she decided she wasn’t ready. The scientists quickly attached a compute to her tracking device and started downloading information.

We were moved over to the other 2 mamas. As “ours” was digging, the other mama finished up and a team of scientists helped get her headed back down to the water so she wouldn’t disturb our mama. 100 kilograms – not an easy task to move her, and one of the researchers went tumbling down onto the sand. Off she went, back down to the sea. The scientists were not happy with the location of the eggs she had laid, as they were not high enough on the dunes. If the late January King tides or storms came through, they could drown the eggs. So the scientists dug them up and moved them to a new nest uphill a bit.

Meanwhile, our mama was finishing up her digging and she started to lay her eggs. 141 ping pong balls. Wow. Wow. Wow. Ty was once again front and center, taking it all in, asking questions. Not acting in the least bit tired even though it was way past his bedtime. Amazing.

A couple other mamas started their way up the beach, directly towards us. That was probably the most fascinating part of the whole experience. There was a group of probably 30 human beings standing right where these turtles wanted to lay their eggs, and they came right at us. Their eyesight is great, so they could see us. But they were generally not afraid. We had to stand very still and not turn on any lights. Up they scooted. One lady was sitting on the beach and a mama with some sort of a growth in the back of her neck was coming up. It literally touched the woman’s leg. She got right up to her spot and something caused her to spook and rush back to the sea.

Our mama finished “pooping her eggs” as Ty calls it, and covered them up. She turned around and we followed her back down to sea.

Some fun turtle facts. Loggerheads are on the verge of extinction, but 95% of the turtles that nest on Mon Repos are Loggerheads. When they hatch, they circle around a bit in the ocean to get their bearings and build up a mental compass to come back to the same spot when they are ready to give birth. They then catch the ocean currents and travel around the world for the next 16 years. They go to a feeding area, stuff their bellies, then go to a courtship area where they basically shack up with all sorts of other turtles. The mamas store the daddy juice in their bellies and make their way to the nesting area. They mix up their little turtle concoction inside their bellies, come to shore, lay ~130 eggs, go back to the ocean, swim up and down the shoreline for a couple weeks, mix up another baby turtle concoction with their stored up daddy juice, repeat. They can lay 3-4 clutches in a season, and then they take a break for 3-4 years before doing it all over again. Each clutch can consist of a number of different daddies. Mama doesn’t eat for 2 months while she is making her babies because she has to save the room for her baby turtle mixtures. Can you imagine the exhaustion?!?! Tough as turtles.

Meanwhile, the males just go to the courtship area, do their thing with heaps of chics, and then go eat. Typical.

On our way back to the car at around 11:30, Ty said, “when we come back to watch the turtles hatch in a few weeks…” So I think we might be coming back. :). Or, we could come back in 2040 to watch the babies that we saw being born come back to nest. That was seriously the coolest thing I have ever experienced.

So yeah, Bundaboring was not worth the trip, but I would do it all over again to see those amazing creatures do what they do. Is it too late to change my career path? Do you think my mad Excel skills would translate into the turtle research industry?

I was covered in sand when we got home and brushed off in the dark on our deck. I thought this was kind of neat when I looked out the next morning. Footprints in the sand.

G’day mates!!