St. Paddy's Day

We missed out on the weekend horse races where everyone celebrated the luck of the Irish. But on Wednesday Laura made a delicious Irish soda bread to celebrate the day.

Cyclone

The weather here has been awesome this past week.  The high temp has been in the high 20's and in the evenings it has been in the mid to low 20s.  The humidity has also dropped to around 50%.  This weather is due to the big cyclone sitting off the coast (it is supposed to hit the shore on the weekend) and a high pressure system in the south.  Therefore, we are getting cool dry air from the south, for the moment.  There is also a lovely breeze which has been keeping the house nice and cool.  It is great not to be sweating all the time, I only hope it lasts.

Bundaberg

Saturday morning we decided to check out the city of Bundaberg, which is famous for three reaons: Bundaberg Sugar, Ginger Beer, and Rum. Being that our favorite non-alcoholic beverage is now Bundaberg Ginger Beer, after brekky we decided to head to the factory for a tour and taste-test. When we arrived at the Ginger Barrel, we were able to take a short tour of the history of ginger beer production. We learned some interesting facts, such as it is all natural product, and they use a fermentation process in production. That means until 1986 when it was regulated, ginger beer had at times been known to contain up to 11% alcohol (now it is a non-alcoholic beverage.) It also means that you can home brew it, which has been known to lead to a few explosions.

The tour ended with a stop at their tasting room to taste some of their other products in addition to their ginger beer. We tried sarsaparilla (root beer), lemon-lime bitters, peachee, apple, burgundee (cream soda made with grapes), and royal crown cola (they are the licensed foreign producers of what we know as RC Cola in the States.) Our favorites were peachee and lemon-lime bitters. Although I had a special liking for the burgundee having grown up drinking a cream soda or two. We left with a variety pack to take home and enjoy.

After enjoying our sugar fix for the day, we decided to head to the museum that tells you how it all starts. The Fairymead House Sugar Museum is an old Queenslander (style of home) that belonged to one of the big sugar producing families in the area. It has since been converted to a museum on the history of sugar farming and production. We were able to wander around the old house while reading and watching videos about how sugar is harvested and the evolution of machinery that has been invented to accomplish this.

After the museum we headed to Bargara, the closest seaside town, for lunch and an ocean view before heading back to Rocky in time for the Comets season opener!

Comets 20 vs Mackay Cutters 10

Saturday night was the opening night for the Comets 2010 season! The game was faster-paced and a bit more exciting than the previous scrimmages we had watched.

For a full breakdown of their first game, go to the Comet's website:

http://comets.com.au/

Mon Repos Turtle Rookery

Friday night we did what is possibly the coolest thing ever. After Matt got off work we hopped in the car and headed down the coast toward Bundaberg. This is the farthest south we have driven down the coast to date. We were pleased to see how green and lush everything is now compared to when we made this trek a few months ago before the rains. The purpose of our trip was to go to the largest Loggerhead Turtle nesting site in the world. From November to February the turtles arrive here to lay their eggs and 8 weeks later those eggs hatch and tonight we were hoping to see some turtle hatchlings.

We arrived at the conservation center just before the doors opened at 7pm. The center is dedicated to protecting the turtles, understanding more about the life cycle of the turtles and educating the public on this unique and threatened species. The center itself has numerous displays on the knowledge their scientists have accumulated over the years and runs videos to educate visitors on the history of turtles and people's affect on them. After checking in, reading the displays, and watching the videos all we could do was wait to be advised if there was "any action" on the beach.

At about 8:15 a volunteer came up and said they were ready for the first group (that was us) to head down to the beach. After receiving a few instructions we were led down a dark but paved path to the beach to the site were a clutch was hatching. Once we arrived to the beach, all torches (flashlights) were turned off and we made our way down the sand to the nearest dune. We made a circle around the nest as a volunteer lit the nest and we watched and waited. It only took a few minutes and we could see a disturbance in the sand. The next thing we knew tiny little turtles were emerging from the sand making their way onto the beach. Turtles smaller than the palm of your hand were digging their way up to the surface so they could head toward the water. It was at this point one of the volunteers would collect them into a holding pen until they all had emerged. They were expecting half a clutch to come out, approximately 60 turtles.

It took maybe 20 minutes for them all to surface. It was then that one of the volunteers allowed us to hold and photograph a few unlucky creatures. The sex of the turtles is dependent upon temperature. So although they couldn't tell us the exact sex of the turtles, they knew that this beach produces mostly females. The turtle that Matt had the honour of holding was a bit cheeky and she bit him (I just figured she wasn't stupid). Since only 1 in 1000 of these turtles will survive into adulthood, she'll probably be the one! The turtles were surprisingly soft to touch.

After we were allowed our photo opportunity, we all lined up down the beach to the water. We stood with our legs apart and shining our torches at the person in front of us' feet, forming a lighted tunnel to the water. It was then that they opened the pen and the turtles began their arduous adventure to the open seas. Our job was to assure they all made it to the water following our lights. This is a critical stage in their life because it is during this stage that the turtles are "imprinted" with the information of the earth's magnetic fields that they need to return to this beach 30 years from now and lay their eggs. Matt had the privilege of being the last in line and had them crawling over his feet as they tumbled into the water.

Once the turtles make it into the water they begin their 3 day journey swimming to the south pacific current. Once they hit this current they can kick back relax and ride the current and concentrate on more important things such as eating and staying alive!