Turtle Power!!

We were picked up by our tour guide at our hostel at 6.15pm and were taken along with 7 others on the 20 min drive to the Mon Repos Conservation Park. The 'park' consists of one beach about a mile long, the dunes behind it and a very small visitor centre. Not quite what I expected from the most important Loggerhead Turtle site in the world. All around the area the lighting is kept to an absolute minimum resulting in a kind of eerie glow which just added to the excitement we were feeling. The reason for the low lighting is that the turtles use the cover of darkness as protection from their predators and the hatchlings use the moonlight to guide them out to sea.

On arrival, all visitors are put into groups and each group is taken down to the beach separately when there is something to see. The bonus of being on a tour was that we were automatically put into group 1 so would be the first lot to see anything that evening. We passed the time whilst waiting by watching a few videos on turtles and showing ourselves around the visitors centre until the big moment came at 8.30pm. A ranger had found what looked like a nest and had realised that there were lots of hatchlings about to appear. As soon as we got down to the beach the tiniest little turtles started to emerge, poking their little heads through the sand and then flapping with all their might to get out. They came slowly at first as some were still sleepy with the warmth but after a little while they came more rapidly until eventually there was just a mass of little green and brown things in the hole flapping, squirming and clambering all over each other to get out. It was so amazing to see them all, something I'll never forget.

As they came out, the ranger was putting them all into a little pen so she could keep an eye on them all until they ran for the sea. Just before she let them go she brought one around to show everyone and let us have a feel of how tough their shells are and how grippy their little fins are.

When they were all out of the nest we stood back as she let them go and they were off towards the sea. It was brilliant to see these little things only a few days old scuttling down the beach for all their life is worth to make it to the sea where they will stay for 30 years if they are a female, when they will mature and come back to the same place to lay their young. If any of our turtles were male then we watched them as they left land forever. They will live, feed, mate and eventually die at sea.

There were over a hundred of our little turtle babies and they all made it to the sea, some by the more unconventional way of via my flip-flops! It was an amazing evening and even if we had done nothing else here it would have made our trip to Bundaberg worth it. Unfortunately we couldn't take any photos but the conservationists saying sums it up: "We leave only footprints and take only memories".