I was asleep for most of the journey to
the next town trying not to vomit everywhere and steadily sweating out all of the fluids consumed the night prior. When we arrived in
Rockhampton I felt rejuvenated and ready for the days events. Our
first stop was the local zoo, after seeing so much of Australia's
wildlife actually IN the wild it was a bit strange seeing the animals
caged up; it did give us a chance to see animals we hadn't yet seen
like wombats and freshwater turtles as well as some animals not
native to Australia (gorillas, monkeys, etc). They also had a few
Casawaries (not sure the plural of that..Casawarys..Casawari?..dunno)
which were exciting to see, because there are signs posted all along
the roads in the rainforest and surrounding areas warning to be
careful of Casawaries. They are endangered and also known to be quite
aggressive so it says not to feed them or even go near them if you
see any in the wild, but they were NO WHERE to be found in the wild.
By the amount of signs posted one would think there were gangs of
them roaming around beating up tourists. A highlight of the zoo trip
was watching a little girl playing with a monkey behind the glass,
making faces and running back and forth, it was very cute (I have a
video).
After a delightful visit to the zoo,
where for some reason we weren't allowed to have balloons (must be
something to do with the birds?) we set off to our next stop which
was a town called 1770. This was a very small and trendy looking
beach side town, filled with beautifully designed houses over looking
rocky beaches and scattered trees along cliff faces. We only stayed a
few hours as Ingrid had previously expressed her desire to see the
sea turtles giving birth on the beach in Bunderburg, known for sea
turtles and rum.
We arrived in Bunderburg at night fall,
not really sure of the time possibly around 10-11pm. We quickly found
out there was a cost for viewing the sea turtles and maybe 70-100
people waiting to see them split in to multiple viewing groups; there
was a long road ahead it seemed. Ingrid told us that this was one of
her life long dreams to see the sea turtles giving birth, so she was
determined to see them, Robert and I were a bit less enthused and
didn't really want to pay to be taken to the beach and watch turtles
giving birth. Not wanting to go alone Ingrid came up with a solution,
we noticed that people were steadily leaving (mostly those with young
children), it was getting later and later and the turtles didn't seem
to be coming. So Ingrid, not being one to give any concern towards
what is and is not socially acceptable behaviour, waited in the
parking lot and began asking people who were leaving for their
tickets. The first family she asked, consisting of 3 very tired
looking children and 2 adults, a bit taken a back to say the least
graciously obliged and gave up their tickets and told us to have a
nice time; and wouldn't you know, they were in the very first group
as well...+1 for Ingrid. After securing our GROUP 1 stickers we
happily sat down with the rest of the people, watching a documentary
on turtles and waiting to be called forward.
After watching two turtle
documentaries, and a few discussions with some grey nomads and other
families it was nearing 3am and some people had been there since
around 8-9pm (Side note: we were also talking very loudly about how
happy we were we arrived so early so we could get into the first
group because we wouldn't want to be waiting around once the turtles
arrived.). We were finally called up as a few turtles were starting
to come on to the beach, the organisers brought us down to the beach
to meet some of the marine biologists and volunteers watching over
the turtles. To ensure the survival of the turtles they made sure the
dugouts were deep enough to protect the eggs from predators and that
they were far enough away so they weren't swept away by the tide.
Ingrid was understandably quite excited, and expressed this by
pushing passed the small children who were called to the front to get
a better view, the marine biologist was not too pleased and
repeatedly asked her to move back so the children could see, she was
also running up and down trying to get the best view every time we
moved, which I just found funny because I wasn't too concerned with
the turtles I was actually more interested in how nice the stars
looked.
Robert not being the biggest fan of
authority figures, took it upon himself to slag off the marine
biologist saying that we all paid and arrived early so we should all
get the best possible view; also quite hilarious. The best part was
when Ingrid was told off for trying to take pictures while the
turtles were going back into the water, when the marine biologist
specifically told everyone not to do that. He actually stood in front
of her while she was trying to take pictures, and kept moving as she
tried to get around him. As we were leaving, the rest of the group
were now watching another turtle, the marine biologist called us back
and made a point to tell us not to just wonder off and that we had to
ask him before going anywhere, I could tell Robert was having no more
of this guy so I apologised and asked him politely if we could leave.
All in all it was an interesting experience, something that I don't
think I will ever see again, especially considering these species are
endangered and considering the current state of the earth, may not
have many years left.
We stopped at a nearby park that
night..when I say night I really mean morning, it was nearing 5am
now, set up camp and got as much sleep as we could considering we
would probably have to leave quite early before families started
arriving with children to play in the park. Next stop Brisbane!
Peace & Love
No comments:
Post a Comment