So... where were we?

Hi all!

So.. it's been a while. From where I left off..

We went diving the next day in the Whitsunday islands. Nothing too spectacular but nice to have an easy dive with no current threatening to rip my limbs off. Went for a nice goodbye meal with Wayne and Jane in the evening. Packed up our flat and Betty in the morning and off we went!

6/7 hours down the road to Emu park. It was like Yungaburra - deserted and weird. We managed to get shouted at by the only charvas in all of Australia buzzing around in a red corsa so that made me feel like I was back in Halty! The next day we headed down to Bundaberg. I was feeling pretty ill so had a nap in Betty while James went for a tour of the rum factory. WEnt for a chinese and were hassled out of there by 8pm. We've noticed this in a few places - if you're eating after about 8.30 the staff start to clean up around you, turning off lights and generally employing all the tactics I used to use in the Angel to throw people out at closing time. It's very strange.

Anyway, we hopped into Betty to try and fing somewhere to sleep. After much meandering we came across the Mon Repos Turtle Rookery (I'd read about it in the guidebook, but there were no signs and we'd given up hope) at about 9pm. The tours had left at 7pm, but after sweet talking the ladies in the gift shop they radioed some of the staff who told us to come down as a turtle had just climbed up the beach. We wandered down to the beach to be met by the guy in charge of all the research and he took us over to 2 volunteers. The turtle was a large female Loggerhead and we were fortunate enough to watch her dig a hole, lay her eggs and then bury them over. Even better, we weren't part of the 40 strong group of tourists we passed on the way there. A fantastic experience.

THe next day we drove down to Hervey Bay to meet our group for the Fraser Island tour - the pair of us and 7 other guys! Definitely a bit too much testosterone in the air! Absolute farce with the organisers (Koala) and I definitely do not recommend them. However, I'll just start ranting if I go on about it and I don't have much time... Infact, it looks like I'll have to cut this short as I need to get back to Betty before the parking meter runs out but I'll finish it off tomorrow!

Katy x