From Rockhampton to Bargara, a coastal town near Bundaberg. Since arriving in Australia I've been drinking Bundaberg ginger beer but its more well known for the production of rum. Tours to the distillery include a tasting of the rum and then onto see how the ginger beer is fermented. However, as much as I would like to have had a small drop of rum we were in Bargara to see the turtle rookeries at Mon Repos.
From November to March the female loggerhead turtles return to the Mon Repos beach to lay their eggs and then about 8weeks later the hatchlings dig themselves out of the nest and make their way to the sea under the cover of darkness. During the season by day the beach is public but after 6.30pm it closes to protect the baby turtles and it's now that you can go on an evening visit to see the turtles either laying or the babies breaking out of their shells.
The visit is from 7pm until 2am but it very rare that you are there for that long. It is quite orchestrated as the rangers know where the nests are and the stage of development they are at but even then are at pains to tell you that there are no guarantees that you will see anything. When we arrived there were quite a lot of people already there being booked in and allocated to a group. It took ages as mr pensioner was crossing your name off the list and mrs pensioner was sticking labels on your chest to indicate your group. Eventually with bright pink stickers attached to our person we sat down in the ampitheatre to await our turn.
It wasn't long before our group, of which there were about 30, joined 2 rangers to head for the beach, there were to be no torches or photography until told. Thank goodness the moon was shining, as it illuminated the way for us and it remained warm enough to stand around. We followed the ranger up the beach, occasionally getting our feet wet as the waves rolled in and out. The trek to the nest didn't take too long and when we got there a young girl volunteer had been excavating it. The senior ranger inspected the eggs and decided that they were ready to hatch so he cracked the egg and the baby turtle emerged.
Meanwhile the second ranger was kneeling down on the sand, about 3metres away from the nest. He had a head torch on which he was shining directly into the nest. When the first baby turtle emerged from his egg and headed towards the sea it set up a chain reaction and loads of the eggs hatched at the same time. By instinct the babies all trekked towards the light from the headtorch thinking it was the moon, their normal point of reference. As they neared the ranger he picked them up and popped them in a wire basket where they squuirmed about, climbing all over each other, sometimes ending upside down. The ranger reassured us that at this stage and only this stage they were able to turn themselves back over. When the last few stragglers had been popped in the basket it was time for photos. The tiny turtles were brought around the group and we were all given an opportunity to have one placed in our hands even thought the rangers never let them go. Their little flippers were scratchy as they tried to gain purchase on anything solid. I couldn't believe how tiny they were and how many of them - mom can lay up to 130 eggs!
When we had all seen them we had to form 2 lines down the beach about 3 metres apart. Then anyone carrying a torch could form a line in the middle, legs apart shining their torch at the ankles of the person infront. The ranger with the head torch waded into the sea and then it was all systems go, the babies were released from the basket and in a scurrying mass they followed the line of torch light in between the legs towards the safety of the waves. The sea rolled in and took the babies with it and as the flow ebbed they were taken off on the beginning of their lifes journey. Survivors will return to the Mon Repos beach in 30 years time to lay their eggs and the cycle will continue.
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| moonlit sea |
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| In the palm of my hand |
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