Day 7-the 11th
After Fraser we got back into Hervey around 10pm and decided to attempt to make the drive to Bundaberg so that we wouldn’t have to waste our daylight the next day. It was nearly impossible for me, but we made it to the outskirts of the city around 1130. We woke up the next day and headed to the information center to see what there was to do. We had heard about the loggerhead turtles hatching in Mon Repos which is about 15 minutes away from Bundaberg so we wanted to see how much the cost and if there were spots open. It ended up being really cheap so we booked our spots and decided to check out the rum distillery in town. When we got there not only was the line for the tours ridiculously long, but it was like 30 bucks to get in!! No thanks! So we just bought some souvenirs and took a picture with the huge rum bottle outside and decided to check out the ginger beer factory instead. There they offered a kids tour for 13 bucks plus you can taste all the different flavors. Of course we did the kids tour. It was pretty funny. We bought our sodas and then headed out to Mon Repos to see the turtles. They tell you when you make your booking to be there at 6 and that you could be out there until midnight. It all depends on when the turtles come out obviously. Luckily we got there right in the middle of hatching season which is the month of March. We only waited about 45 minutes before our group was called to head out and check out a nest. We followed our guide out onto the beach, no lights on or anything, until we got to the nest. Making a big circle around the nest we were able to see the baby turtles come up out of the sand and crawl down the beach to where the guide was leading them. They then put them in a little pen so that people could see them. Then we were able to touch them and take photos before eventually making a line down the beach towards the ocean. The baby turtles follow the lowest horizon light so by just using flashlights we were able to guide them safely down the beach into the ocean. It was amazing!! And the turtles are so small and cute. They are smaller than the palm of your hand!! A normal nest produces about 130 baby loggerhead turtles. For some reason our nest only produced 11. The guide said this could be from the flooding and the eggs getting too wet. He then went back to the nest to open it up himself to see what happened with the eggs and make recordings. He offered us to stay and watch so we did and we found 21 more little babies that were just stuck underground!! Because the ground had gotten too wet not all the eggs were fertilized properly. Because some of the eggs didn’t hatch the few turtles that did weren’t strong enough to push past the bad eggs so they were just trapped underground. It’s a good thing we went looking for them!!! So we had 32 little baby turtles in all. So amazing. That was defiantly something I will never forget.
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| Our guide counting the eggs that didn't make it. |
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| Baby!!! |
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| The ginger beer factory! |
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| Taste Testing |
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| The huge bottom of Rum! |
Day 8- 12th
Just like the night before we decided to try to drive to our next destination at night so we wouldn’t waste our daylight. The next stop was the town of 1770. We made it all but an hour before I just couldn’t drive anymore. We pulled to the side of the road until morning. First thing on the list of things to do was to find Kileys credit card. We went to the post office in Agnes Water which is the sister town of 1770. They didn’t have anything there so we went to the information center to get more flyers on things to do and also just to find out more information about the place. We found the place where Kileys card was (thank goodness), went and picked it up and then booked our spot on the Lady Musgrave tour for the next day. Lady Musgrave is an island on the outer Great Barrier Reef. 1770 is unreal. One of the prettiest places I have ever been for sure. Agnes Water is right on the ocean where 1770 is a cove that faces north. Because of that there are hardly any waves at all and also the sun sets over the water which is something you don’t usually get on the east coast. We decided to take a relax day and just enjoy the gorgeous water so we laid on the beach the entire afternoon. We had so many cool encounters with all sorts of creatures. Laying in the water all this little fish started swarming around us. They then came up and started to peck our skin. I’m pretty sure they were eating the dead skin off of us, but it was really fun to see all of them!! Also we found these little blue crabs that were so cool. They looked similar to spiders, but when they dug their hole in the sand they went in circles so it created these little tiny sand balls. Kiley and I spent quite a while going along the beach trying to dig them up so that we could watch them dig their little holes again. Also as the tide was starting to go out a sand bank was created near where we were swimming so we swam out to that. I think we all know that I am not the best of swimmers. As in, I CAN swim…I’m just not awesome at it. As we were swimming out to this bank the current started getting really strong. Kiley, who is a swimmer, even said it was really strong. For some reason I thought it was really funny that were weren’t able to get back and just started cracking up, therefore I couldn’t swim anymore because I was laughing so hard. As a joke I just started yelling to Kiley ‘I’m gonna die….I can’t believe I let you take me out here and such’. Again even Kiley was agreeing that the current was really strong and we were having a hard time swimming against the current trying to get to this sand bank. Just about when I was yelling I was going to die Kiley turns to me and says, ‘Molly, stand up’. Hahah turns out we were only in about 3 feet of water!!! Haha guess I wasn’t going to die after all. Kiley still makes fun of me for that.
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| Sunset in 1770 |
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| We had our own private beach in 1770 |
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| Tiny Crab |
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| All the tiny crabs that are around |
Day 9- the 13th
We woke up early to get ready for our Lady Musgrave tour!! We weren’t sure if it was even going to happen since we had been told if the wind is really bad they won’t go out to the island, but they seemed as though all systems were a go! We arrived and as we were getting on the boat they were warning us it was going to be a bumpy ride because of the high winds. Then again when we were seated they came out and told anyone who was nervous about the ride to reschedule for another day. Wow. That makes me feel really comfortable and safe. It was about an hour and a half ride out to the island and it literally felt like roller coaster. Kiley and I were having a great time and we thought it was fun, but about 95% of the rest of the boat were not having a great time like us. Everyone was getting really bad sea sickness and one girl even started having a panic attack. Even poor Jess got a bit sick towards the end of the ride. I think Kiley and I must be made of steel or something, because we didn’t feel anything at all. I think there were only 4 other people who didn’t get sick. As we came up to the island the first thing we noticed was how crazy blue the water was. It looked fake. It looked like when people paint the bottom of their swimming pools bright blue to make the water in the pool more blue. Insane. We were later told that it was because the water was so shallow and there was no pollution. We arrived to the docking station and the first thing that happened was the fish feeding. So many barracudas and all sorts of colorful fish just swarmed the area that they knew the food was going to be. The barracudas were even jumping out of the water to get the food. Then we went to the actual island for a tour. The tour itself was really boring, but the island was amazing!!! We could have stayed on the beach all day. There was TONS of coral just washed up onto the beach along with a lot of really pretty shells and such. We ‘weren’t allowed’ to take anything off the island so I only have a few shells and a couple of pieces of bright red coral. Once we got back onto the boat lunch was served. Again you could tell who the backpackers were. It was a really good buffet lunch that had all sorts of yummy treats, pasta salad, chicken, cold cuts, lots of fruit, bread and butter, potato salad. The works. After lunch we were able to get in the water to start snorkeling. I was one of the few people who put on a lifejacket AND a wetsuit instead of just a wetsuit. I was really glad that I did that. Again, I can swim, but I’m not the best. Because of the high winds the current was really strong and it would have seriously cut back on my snorkeling time if I didn’t wear that jacket because I would have had to stop to rest every 30 minutes or so. We saw tons of coral and colorful fish and huge clams that were really cool. There was also a bunch of massive sea cucumbers. I didn’t know they could get that big!!! After snorkeling for about 2 hours we headed back to 1770. We made friends with two guys from Sweden during the day and on the way back we hung out with them on the top deck so that we could stay away from the people who were getting sick. I think it’s really funny how most of the people on the tour were older or families. All the young people united and hung out the entire day. So basically just the 5 of us. Haha. After we got back we snuck into the campervan site we stayed in the night before to take a nice hot shower and then found a spot in the park to have dinner. We all just hung out that night and since they were going south and we were going north we found a spot half way to the freeways to just pull over to the side of the road and sleep for the night. We found a spot on a road that didn’t seem to have a lot of traffic. Boy were we wrong. There were semi trucks driving along ALL night. Because there wasn’t a whole lot of room on the side of the road every time a semi or a larger car would drive by our entire van would shake. I’m a pretty heavy sleeper so once I was asleep I didn’t notice, but apparently poor Jess was waking up every time. We will definitely be choosing better spots further from the road from now on. Lady Musgrave was amazing and it was really cool to get a taste of the outer reef. I’m really glad that we did it.
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| The water was SO blue |
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| On Lady Musgrave island |
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| The beach was just all coral and shells |
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| All the fish that welcome the boat...and yes..the water IS that blue |
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| We were the only ones who didn't get sick on the boat!! Success! |
Day 10-the 14th
We woke up really early since the trucks were driving us crazy and drove into Rockhampton. We had no idea of anything to do here we just knew it was a stopping point for us. Also we knew somewhere around there was the Tropic of Capricorn which is the half way point between the south pole and the equator. The first thing we see when we drive into down is a massive statue of a bull. I mean MASSIVE right in the middle of the first roundabout. Ridiculous. A good start I suppose. We found the information center and discovered we were standing directly on the tropic of Capricorn!! After tons of pictures we went inside to see what else we could do for the day. This place is a mini Texas. It is hilarious. We learned it was the steak capital of Australia. Also on Wednesday nights there was free bull riding at the Western Hotel. Who could pass that up?? I mean really. We headed over to the hotel to see if we needed to make reservations or anything and EVERYTHING was western theme. So funny. The bull riding was in the afternoon so we went to the botanical gardens in town which also had a free zoo attached to it. We walked through the gardens and then checked out the kangaroos, monkeys, koalas, emus and all the birds they had at the zoo. We even got to watch lorikeets eat and take photos with them. We also heard about these caves you could take a tour of. We drove all the way out there (about 30 minutes) only to miss the last tour of the day by about 15 minutes. Lame. So we drove back in a decided to have a steak at the Western Hotel. After all, you have to have a steak in the steak capital of Australia. The bull riding was after and it was hilarious. Everyone was really into it (even though it was just practice, not an actual event) and they even had little kids out there doing it!! They put a 3 year old on the bull, but he got scared at the last minute and didn’t want to do it anymore. That can’t be good for a kid. I guess I never realized how massive these bulls were. The older boys were riding really really big mean looking bulls. We were chatting with a girl in front of us whose boyfriend rides. We were talking and one of the bulls that were waiting to go out nearly climbed over the pin! He was HUGE and obviously really mad he was cooped up in that tiny holding cell. The girl looked at us and said ‘that’s the one my boyfriend is riding’. ‘Good luck to him’ I replied. He only lasted about a second, but I’m sure that was all he needed. That thing was huge!!! It was really scary at times when people almost get stepped on and stuff. You can get seriously hurt doing those things. It was really funny how we have people from Texas with their really strong accents and such. The people that we were talking to in Rockhampton also had really strong accents. It was hilarious because it actually was like a town version of Texas. While watching the bull riding we decided to do the tour of the caves early in the morning and then head up to Airlie beach to get things ready for our Whitsunday tours. We drove out to the middle of nowhere and just parked for the night and crashed.
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| The tropic of capricorn |
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| Emu! |
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| The animals at the free zoo we went to! |
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| Botanical Gardens |
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| Cute Dingo |
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| Our t-bone steaks in the steak capital of Australia |
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| Bull Riding |
Day 11- the 15th
On Thursday we woke up early and headed out towards the caves around 830. The first tour was at 9 so we figured if we could be on the road by 1030 we could make it to Airlie Beach by 430 or 5 and hopefully things would still be open so we could book our Whitsunday cruises. The caves were so so so cool. They are above ground caves and also dry caves so they were formed with barely any water. Our tour guide was telling us that they were around before the dinosaurs even!! We went through a bunch of different caves and they had lights flashing on certain parts so you could see the different parts of the caves. Really neat. They also have a cave called the cathedral cave. They have weddings in there and operas twice a year. There was pews and everything in it. They played us a song and we could listen to the natural acoustics. The reason they have opera singing and stuff is because the cave has almost perfect acoustics. The guide said it’s almost equal with the acoustics in the opera house!! That just blows my mind. There were so many cool little parts of the caves that I could have spent so much more time in. Defiantly worth it. After the tour we sat down and had a scone and then were on the road by 1030 as planned. I made up a bit of time and ended up cutting an hour off so we arrived in Airlie Beach around 330 or 4. We stopped in the information/central booking center to figure out which tours we should do. They are all really expensive but Kiley and I found one that fits really nicely and she gave us a discount of over 150 dollars. All 3 of us girls also books a plane ride over all the islands so we can see them from the air. It should be really awesome!! Hopefully the weather holds up for us though. Our drive into Airlie was rough with lots of rainy patches and even just sitting in the caravan park tonight it has rained twice. We found out that rain won’t really matter for our itinerary, but if it’s too windy then we might not be able to go to Whitehaven beach which is where I really want to go, so we’ll see. The tour we are doing is a 3 day 2 night tour that also goes to the outer reef. You can snorkel all you want and you even get one free scuba dive!! Should be good times. Today has just been basically getting everything ready for the big trip we have going for the next 3 days. It has also pretty much drained my money supply so hopefully it’s worth every penny!! I’ll let you know soon.
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| Cathedral Cave..they have operas and weddings in here since the acoustics are nearly perfect |
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