Mon Repos Turtle Hatching
6-7 Feb 2021
The boys left around 12 noon on Saturday 6 February and drove up the A1 to Bundaberg. https://www.bundabergregion.org/
Arriving in Bundaberg, we stopped in at Woolworths to purchase food items to make up a special dinner meal for 2. All choices were made by Hayden. After another 20 minutes in the car, we arrived and checked into a holiday park cabin.
https://breezeholidayparks.com.au/park/bargara-beach/
We
quickly moved in and sorted ourselves out ready for our turtle adventure that
night. As we were not guaranteed a time to move to the beach to see a turtle
event, we choose to have a quick nap just in case the night was a long one.
After
approximately an hour of rest, we prepared and ate our special meal. Hayden had
chosen well.
At around dusk we packed a backpack with clothes, water and headlamps and drove to Mons Repos, and checked in with the rangers at the Turtle centre.
https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/mon-repos/attractions/mon-repos-turtle-centre
https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/mon-repos/attractions/mon-repos-turtle-encounter-tours
COVID19 conditions were strictly enforced at check in, and when waiting. We had to sit in our own group of 2 within the centre, however we were part of a 20-person group for the beach.
Much to our luck
and excitement, we only had to wait just under an hour to get the call for our
group to head out onto the beach. Our Turtle adventure was underway!! It was very
dark, and no lights allowed, thus it was very difficult to see and quite
difficult to walk. To help ensure we did not hurt turtles we were forced to
walk high on the beach in the soft sand.
For our first stop we the watched the “head guy” conduct a street light experiment, however due to the need to not use any other lighting we could not really see very much. I am not sure if this experiment has been run often or with different lights, however the streetlights had no effect on the turtles, so much brighter lights were needed. If the lights were to be used as real streetlights, they must be brighter to be of use.
After the group had seen enough, our group was able to move onto our one allowed event, which we were lucky enough to see a nest of turtles hatching! Our nest had round 50 – 70 turtles emerge. The turtles were smaller than I expected, and their flippers were very tough feeling. They truly were small fragile creatures. The few of us with torches (no phone lights were allowed) formed a tunnel between our legs and used our lights to herd the turtles into the sea. This was the highlight of the night for me. The little ones were definitely drawn to the lights and they climbed all over our shoes in their rush to the water.
Once all the turtles were safely into the sea, they were on their own, and we headed back to the Turtle Centre and from there we headed straight back to the cabin for a few hours’ sleep until morning. We slept in a little in the morning and as the weather was a little windy, Hayden did not wish to swim. As we had holidayed in the area a few months earlier, Hayden did not wish to do anything else in town, so we packed up and headed home.
We arrived
home around 12 noon, thus the complete adventure taking only 24 hours.
