Airlie to Bundaberg

[I just read this through, and I'm really, really sorry about the terrible writing. There was just a lot to write, and I'm still excited!]

Hi!
We are in Bundaberg, and we have internet in our room! That means I'm writing this as I go, not in installments. I hope it makes sense. It's actually a crazy complicated set-up where Jon is plugged in to the internet and his computer is acting as a wireless router that I'm connected to. Whatever, it works, although it didn't work in our room so we're actually in the room next door. We're at a Best Western because all the hostels in town were ridiculously expensive anyway, and Jon is a corporate discount member through one of the companies he worked for in Cairns. Okay, whatever, we're here, and it's been good, there are laundry facilities so that has been good. Okay, rambling, lots to tell you all about, so here goes!

Sailing in the Whitsundays was a lot of fun, we actually went to Hayman Island, where Mom, Dad, Jenny and I stayed almost ten years ago. The sail was nice, although we did get a bit of rain.


Luckily they had super-cool rain jackets for us on the boat. The weather did clear up, and Hayman Island was beautiful.



Check out the clear water. The diving was fine, not nearly as good as what I did in Cairns, which makes me feel good about having worked there. This was probably my favorite diving picture, I could show you more but I just have so much more exciting stuff to write!



Okay, one more sailing picture, just because it's such a good one.


And this one too. Because it's so dynamic. (Dynamic? Did I just type that? I must be tired.)


Okay, that was sailing. The end. So that was St. Patrick's Day, we went to the Irish Pub in town (which was seriously like one of 5 bars, so that was lucky) and had a pint of Guiness, then went to bed early. We had to get up early the next day for Forest Flying!

Forest flying was in the Finch Hatton Gorge, in the Eungella Rainforest. Our driving directions included "turn left just after you go through the creek" and the drive did in fact involve multiple creek crossings. The Yaris is going strong, I am so impressed by this car.

So Forest Flying involves wearing a harness and being attached to a zipline, then cruising through the rainforest. Check out my "sassy" harness pose.



What amazed me the most (and what I'm glad I found out after I did it) was that the guy set the whole thing up using a bow and arrow. That's amazing to me.

There I am! It was very cool, lots of crazy things to see but pretty tough to take pictures with one hand while slowing yourself down with the other as you fly through the rainforest. Also, I need to move on because I am so excited to tell you about tonight!

Before I do, I need to tell you about last night. Rockhampton is the beef capital of Australia, so obviously my expectations for the town were not high. Also, the hostel we were staying at didn't even have a picture of the building on the website (but it was a YHA, which is a national chain, so we knew it would meet a certain standard.) So my expectations were very low, and got lower when we drove up to a depressing brick building. When we checked in, the guy told us we were at "cabin 18," which... well, I didn't really know what to think. Turns it it meant a trailer!


Okay, actually it is a "modular unit" and these specific ones were actually athlete housing during the Sydney Olympics, which is kind of cool. But we walked in and seriously? This thing was a palace! We had our own bathroom and plenty of space for our stuff. Which was a huge improvement over the places that we have been staying. I was so impressed! Also we had a delicious Italian dinner near the river, and all in all, I was pleasantly surprised by Rockhampton.

Today we got up and backtracked a little bit to the Capricorn Caves. Even before we got into the caves, we were glad we made the trip: hanging out in the little nearby campground, there were kangaroos! Craziness!


This picture makes it look really tiny, but it's a weird angle, they were probably four feet tall. Pretty cool.

The caves were pretty, and the end was fun because we had to walk through this part called the zig-zag passage with no guide and with just candles for light. I got to lead the way, which was exciting. Here's a pretty cave picture.


We drove to Bundaberg, did some laundry, and then did what has got to be the coolest thing we've done so far... turtle hatching!

We drove to a place called Mon Repos at about 6:45 pm, which is a turtle sanctuary. We happen to be at the right time of year to see the little baby turtles emerge from their nests and head to the open ocean. Once we were there, we had to wait in a group of about 50 people to hear if there were turtles hatching on the beach. At about 7:30, we all went out to the beach and power-walked down to the nest. The rangers put a little extra sand on top of the nest so the turtles won't get out too quickly, and the timing was perfect. We all got in a circle and watched little bitty Loggerhead turtles emerge from the nest.



Here's the nest they came out of (after they were all gone, and the volunteers were collecting data on the nest).


125 of these little guys came out of the nest we were watching, and they were all corralled until they were out and we could move to the beach.



On the beach, the rangers drew lines in the sand to make a little track for the turtles to run to the beach, and everyone lined up on the sides. Because the turtles are attracted to light to get to the ocean (usually the horizon), they needed a few flashlights to guide them. Jon and I (and one other guy) got to stand in the middle of the track to guide the turtles! This was such an amazing bit of luck, because while everyone else got to watch, we had dozens of turtles crawling over our feet! This is a terrible picture, but we couldn't use a flash, and Jon was taking the picture over my shoulder as these little guys ran at us. You can make out some turtles in the middle, and the guy in front of us's feet, which I had to point the flashlight at to guide the turtles from him to us.


It was incredible to feel like we were actually helping these turtles along to the ocean! I would absolutely recommend this experience to everyone, and I just feel so lucky that we got to be the ones right in the middle of it all!

As you can tell, things are great. We've gone 1,831 kilometers so far, and I think we are about halfway. We've gotten to see and do some great things that we would never have done if we had been flying and only seeing the major cities. (That sounds like such an obnoxious hippy-backpacker thing to say, and I apologize, because they drive me crazy). But seriously, I'm so glad we've had the chance to do this. I will let you know what happens next!