Turtles in Bundaberg

I spent the last weekend in Bundaberg together with Vanessa (who I met in Peru travelling) and her friend Kristie (who Vanessa met in Ecuador travelling). I have not had a girlie weekend break in a while and really enjoyed it, especially the singing along to cheesy 80s tunes in the car!
We drove up to Bundaberg, which is four hours north of Brisbane on the coast and met up with another friend of Vanessa and enjoyed some time on the beach and a night out with way to much Bundy Rum and a very good cover band with a rather handsome front man!

The second night was amazing as we managed to book us into the Mon Repos Nature Reserve for a spectacular night visit on the beach to watch Loggerhead turtles hatch. The largest concentration of nesting marine turtles on the eastern Australian mainland occurs at Mon Repos and is the most significant loggerhead turtle nesting population in the South Pacific Ocean region. Successful breeding here is critical for the survival of this endangered species. What a wonderful miracle to witness!


We stood in the pitch black night and listened to the park ranger explaining the life cycle of the turtles on this beach and how they always come back to lay their eggs on the beach they were born. They have the magnetic imprint of this location in their little brains and manage to find their way back there from no matter where they are in the ocean. Unfortunately, only about 1 in 1000 turtles makes it to adulthood and manages to reproduce. Which is why they are so endangered.



Once the little ones started wriggling out of their nest there was no stopping them. About 130 of them hatched at the same time and scrambled out of their hole in the sand and ran down the beach on their tiny tiny little flippers. It was the cutest and most fascinating thing!!! We had barely recovered from the miracle when they called us over to the other side of the beach where a huge mama turtle had climbed up the dunes to make a new nest and lay her eggs. She was laying her 4th batch of eggs that night and the professor who examined her with ultrasound said she will probably lay 2 more batches this season. That would be over 800 baby turles just from one mother!!


It was brilliant to watch this huge turtle dig a bottle shaped hole in the ground using her back finns and then laying her eggs in it and covering them up. I felt very priviledged...very excited and very peaceful. I slept like a baby in our little cabin on the beach dreaming of little turles exploring the ocean....