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!
A beautiful sunny day greeted us this morning. So we had breakfast and headed over to the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village taking the scenic route along the coast. A few stops for some pictures and some coffee were included along the way. The village is an impressive recreation of an early Australian port. A movie, a museum and a number of restored historic ships and buildings comprised this Village and told the tale of the dangerous nature of the Bass Strait (due to its rocky coastline) and the enormous number of casualties it claimed. Imagine spending 3 months on a ship crossing rough seas and then sinking with your destination in sight?!?
From here we turned inland to head to the Grampians National Park. These ranges are known for their diversity of wildlife, both plant and animal, as well as numerous waterfalls and unusual rock formations. It is also an area with a strong Aboriginal history. We entered through the south of the park at Dunkeld, enjoying another scenic route. Halls Gap was were we made our base for exploring this area. It is in Fyans Valley and close to the Wonderland Range, where we would do most of our bushwalking. When we arrived we found that our room was an individual cabin on a hillside facing a lawn full of kangaroos foraging for supper.
We still had some daylight, as daylight savings time had not ended here yet, so we decided to trek to pinnacle peak (this is where the picture of Matt in "Melbourne Preview" was taken). The first half of this hike was through grand canyon, a rushing stream through a narrow rock-way. It was quite pretty.
