We've got the sharks out of the pool!
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2011
1
92
Trip End
Ongoing
Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
We left Brisbane on another Greyhound and headed to Noosa. We had heard good reports about this place so decided to stop there. The bus only took an hour and a half (by this point in the trip we were starting to wonder why people complain about travelling long distances in Australia) so we arrived at midday and were picked up by the hostel bus.
Once again we had decided to stay in the YHA. By now you might be wondering what is a YHA and why do they keep on mentioning it? Well a YHA is a youth hostel, there pretty good so when we got to Sydney we became YHA members. You pay $30 but you get about $4 off every nights stay in a YHA each so you make the money back quickly. As I said the YHA’s are usually pretty good, Noosa was the exception. The hostel is set in a lovely old building on a hill about 2 minutes away from the main beach but its also attached to its own ‘Bistro and Bar’. I imagine that since this YHA has opened its never put any money into the Kitchen or somewhere for backpackers to sit and eat there meal. I’m not joking when I say the kitchen had maybe one sharp knife, two pans (one didn’t have a handle) a few plastic bowls and this was it. The dinning area was a bench built around a window big enough to seat 10 people, this set up was for a hostel that can sleep hundreds. In the kitchen was a big sign which said ‘don’t cook, eat at our restaurant’. However, a meal at the restaurant was about $10 each that’s for breakfast NOT dinner and spaghetti on toast coast about $2 if I make it myself. The rooms didn’t have any lockers or curtains for that matter so every morning we were up with the sun. Lastly the showers were really strange and it felt like tiny needles hitting your body when you were in it. Obviously I’m now just complaining about insignificant things for the fun of it but it was the worse YHA we have stayed in.
I would compare Noosa to the Gold Coast, a holiday town for families on two week breaks, only its smaller. There are activities you can do in Noosa such as go and visit the everglades, take a river trip or go to the Australian Zoo (Steve Irwin Zoo) but as we’ve said before we just don’t have the money for these things. A trip to the everglades was $350 each - that’s £470 for one nights accommodation, a long bus ride there and a couple of hours in the everglades, I’m not sure whose coming up with these prices but they must be delusional. We came to the conclusion that we would not be doing any overpriced day trips and would spend the time on the beach which seemed pretty nice.
We awoke the following morning, struggled to eat our breakfast in the tiny space provided and then headed to the beach. It would appear that most of Australia are on holiday in Noosa because the beach was packed. We found a space for our towels, covered our selves in sun cream and spent the rest of the day playing in the sea and drying off in the sun.
That evening whilst cooking our dinner we met two guys travelling around Australia from England who were hitchhiking and couch surfing (sleeping on someones couch), its probably the best way to travel around Australia these days to be honest, its just not backpacker friendly (unless of course the backpacker in question has won the lottery). We all went down to the beach that evening and spent some time talking about our travels.
The next day was again spent on the beach but before we could do that we had to walk into town to get some food and we wanted to have a look around the town near the beach. Noosa was very hot and after the 15 minute walk to the shops we decided to get the bus back to the main beach. Over Christmas Noosa has a free holiday bus so you don’t have to pay. With our shopping we headed over to a parked bus which we thought was stopped at a bus stop. We stood for a while outside the bus, the door was open but the bus driver wasn’t coming out. Boff stuck his head round the door just to see what was happening, ask for some help, the usual but before he could even say anything he was very abruptly told that ‘the bus driver was having his dinner and that this WAS NOT a bus stop and to leave him in peace’ Boffs reply… “Ok well thanks for being so nice about it!”. We walked back over the huge hill to main beach and complained about Noosa the whole way back (its so strange as well because everywhere else in Australia the bus drivers have been the friendliest people, we thought… it must be Noosa).
Walking around Noosa we found that it’s your pretty standard beach town, overpriced ice cream parlous, fast food joints, expensive beach side restaurants and countless clothes shops whose prices start at about $69.99!.
That night we decided to take our left over wine from Christmas to the beach and do some stargazing, partly because the beach is nice and partly because the hostel had a ‘No Alcohol’ rule - I wonder if that’s because it also has a bar attached to it? ‘don’t drink cheap wine folks, drink our overpriced alcohol instead!’. We spent the night on the beach staring at the stars, digging our feet into the VERY white sand and drowning our Noosa sorrows.
The last day in Noosa was spent again on the Beach. We had also moved rooms to the 16 dorm ‘Rainforest Room’ which had one shower and one toilet for all 16 people but at least it had curtains, a luxury in this YHA.
To be honest we were pretty excited to move on from Noosa, it’s a place for holiday makers, like I said, not backpackers. I imagine that the trips to the everglades are lovely but we just can’t afford that kind of money. We are slowly coming to the conclusion that in order to move around Australia and do all the trips and activities you need to have come with more then we did or you have to work your way around. Me and Boff are big nature people and we love being outside or exploring so we have decided to hold on to our cash until New Zealand when nature will be free and abundant (not that it’s not abundant in Australia it’s just not free).
Bundaberg (Arrived 08/01/12).........
We decided to go to Bundaberg because of the Mon Repos centre. I had read about this place in the Lonely Planet and your able to watch turtles coming up onto the beach and lay there eggs (how often do you get the opportunity to see that) as long as it’s the right season, which happens to be December till March.
An Irish guy in Noosa had told us NOT to go there because its all workers working on farms who get in fights after work because they all hate the place. We ignored the mans advice and headed to Noosa on the Greyhound which took over 7 hours, the journey times were starting to increase!.
When we finally arrived in Bundaberg it was nearly 5 o’clock and the sun was low in the sky but it was immensely hot, possibly the hottest place we had been in Australia at that point. We walked to the first hostel across from the bus station only to be told by a very helpful woman that all the beds in the one night room are taken. The hostel was a working hostel, one of the guests there was staying for 18 months!. She told us that we wouldn’t get a room in any of the hostels as there all working hostels and it was better to try some of the motels just out of town. In Bundaberg there are no buses or taxis just driving around so we started the long walk to the other side of town in the crazy heat. I spotted an abandoned trolley at one point so we chucked all our stuff in that and walked the streets like the homeless trying to find a motel which was a decent price. Unfortunately the cheapest motel had just sold its last room so we had to go for the second cheapest one for the first night and would change the second night to the ultra cheap motel (dedication to the budget).
After settling in we took a walk around town, which is pretty small and found a shop selling frozen coke possibly the best drink ever when your in the Bundaberg heat. That night for tea because we didn’t have any kitchen and we can’t afford to eat out we ate cup-a-soups and noodles with bread (at least we had a kettle). We settled into bed that night watching C.S.I (where people who stay in motels always get murdered!).
The following day we would be going to see the turtles but that wouldn’t be till the evening. We had booked the trip the week before because it gets busy and it’s a good job too because it was now booked up until the 13th of January. Boff called a man called Jimmy who would be driving us the 10 minutes down the road to Mon Repos and back seen as there’s no public buses. The 10 minute drive and back would cost us $30 in total and that’s the cheapest cab. The charge for the Mon Repos centre was only $10 each (the most reasonably priced trip in Australia).
So we moved rooms that morning to our new motel which was the same but this time with a microwave. We did some shopping and bought some microwave meals for tea, had some more frozen coke and then took refuge back at the motel because the heat was so extreme I was worried we would turn into little raisins if we were out for 5 minutes longer.
After tea Jimmy turned up in his giant van which was a good thing because he was a giant man. Jimmy seemed to be hard of hearing because during the 10 minute drive there everything I said to him was returned with a “Hmmm” or a “what?”. He handed us leaflets on what else you can do in Bundaberg and we politely said “ohh yes that seems nice” whilst all the while thinking ‘yeah we can’t do any of this, do you know everything’s overpriced? Including this cab journey?’.
When we got to Mon Repos Jimmy agreed to meet us at 11.30pm/12am although we could be there till 2am but regardless he would wait from 11.30pm. After a short wait and a look around the Mon Repos information centre we were told to come in and collect a sticker which would tell us which group we would be in. What happens is in each group there are maybe 30 to 50 people (400 people can come on anyone night) and when your group is called those 30/50 people go to the beach to see the turtle. When another turtle appears on the beach group two will be called. During this time the other groups are waiting hoping that another turtle appears otherwise you won’t see one. We happened to be group 5 - the last group. Boff got chatting to a man who sold chips and liked Malaysia who said that group 5 is the best because there’s less people and the more time that passes the more turtles come up to the beach so we were in high spirits.
At 10.30pm after watching some informative videos group 5 was called. We all walked down a boardwalk and onto the beach which was bathed in moon light. We were told to stay behind the guide so as not to scare the turtle. When we got to the turtle we formed a semi-circle behind so we could watch. We watched as the turtle dug a hole, laid her eggs and finally buried them. The whole process took about an hour and a half. The turtle was exhausted. It was amazing to see her go back to the sea, struggling after what she had been through all to lay eggs on the beach in the hope that one of those will be the 1 in 1000 that survives.
The turtle had laid her eggs pretty far up the beach but unfortunately due to king tides they get at that beach it just wasn’t far enough up so the guide decided it would be best to dig up the eggs and relocate them to a higher point further up the beach, we would get the chance to help him do this. He dug the hole and counted 93 turtle eggs, this is on the low side of average but apparently our turtle had already laid 4 times that season and its pretty normal for the number of eggs she lays to drop.
Everybody formed a queue and we were each given a tiny turtle egg to take to the next hole which had been dug by two other guides. I held mine tight whilst all the while wishing to Mother Nature that this little egg would make it.
We didn’t get to see any hatchlings but we did see other turtles coming out of the water and making there way slowly up the beach to lay there eggs. It was amazing watching something so natural, something that you may never get a chance to experience. Both Me and Boff agreed that watching the turtle at Mon Repos was one of the best things we have done this whole trip.
Just a whistle stop tour in Bundaberg we would soon be heading to Airlie Beach further up north. Bundaberg is mainly for workers and people who like rum (Bundaberg Rum is made there) but we had gotten something amazing from it.
