James & Quene travelling around the World

Hello from the Whitsunday islands !!

This is the next post, further down the coast, we arrived in Airlie Beach, gateway to the Whitsunday Islands, lots of beautiful sandy beaches and plenty of resort style spots to keep you pampered…

Español: Estamos en Airlie Beach, puerta de los Whitsunday Islands, muchas playas y complejos hoteleros para mimarnos un poco.

We did a hike around one of the Islands – Long Island, and have never seen so many big spiders! We say a rock wallaby, but we were a bit too slow with the camera, oh and a giant lizard too, but his camouflage was so good that it was tricky to make him out! And also there’s the ever present reminder on every beach you come to, not to go in the water, those damn stingers!!! Another 800km further south before we can get in and bathe without fear of being stung!

Esp: Estuvimos haciendo senderismo en una de las islas- Long Island , y nunca habiamos visto tantas arañotas!!.Vimos un rock Wallaby, pero desaparecio entre los arboles mas rapido que pudimos sacar la camara…En cada playa hay carteles sobre lo que te espera en el agua.. 800 Km al sur y estaremos a salvo.

And as you can see we both share in the driving 50/50! Ah, gotta get some pics of the campervan – “Hi-Top Tessie” so you can see where we call home for the last 2 weeks, and the next week and a half…

Esp: Aqui compartiendo los Km y el volante para que sea menos pesado… esta es nuestra casa durante un mes que dura el viaje de Cairns Sydney.

Now here’s one of the most amazing experiences we’ve witnessed so far on the trip!
Mon Repos, this is a beach about 15km north of Bundaberg, southern Queensland, about 300km north of Brisbane. This beach is home to many a nesting turtle, so they have made a research centre right by the beach which explains the nesting habits of the marine turtle (Logger Head and Green being the more common ones in this area).

Esp: Sin duda este es uno de los momentos mas emocionantes que vamos a recordar en todo el viaje..!Mon- Repos, es una playa solitaria a 15 Km de Bundaberg, al sur de Queensland, 300 km al norte de Brisbane. Estas playas se encuentras los nidos de las tortugas de mar.. y nada mas llegar al anochecer pudimos ser testigos de uno de esos momentos de plenitud de la naturaleza.. el nacimiento de las tortuguitas.

Every year in December, female turtles come ashore to lay their eggs in nests some 60cm deep, which they have dug themselves, laying approx. 120 eggs in each nest, over a period of 2 months they come ashore 3-4 time to lay a cluster of eggs. In February – March the baby turtles hatch out of their eggs, and come up to the surface, at night, when the threat of other animals is less, and the air is notably cooler. This is an amazing sight, we saw 3 different nests that night, seeing the hatchlings come bubbling up to the surface of the sand and take their first glomps of the ocean, their home for the next 70 or so years is amazing! As we couldn’t use flash for photography, the photos are not the best, the use of flash distracts them from the ocean horizon, their goal for that night. Hope you like the photos:

Esp: Cada año a partir de Diciembre las tortugas llegan a la costa oscuras y solitarias, para dejar los huevos, cavan huecos de 60cm aprox… y depositan hasta 120 huevos, volveran a la costa dos o tres veces para dejar mas. Sobre Febrero y Marzo ..( 52 dias despues mas o menos) los bebes tortuga salen a la superficie, por la noche , para asegurarse su supervivencia. Fue increible estar alli verles salir de la arena y dirigirse hacia el oceano, su hogar para los proximos 70 años ..si sobreviven. No pudimos utilizar flash estos animales siguen la luz y se desorientarian facilmente… Aun asi espero que os guste.

They let you pet just one or two, to minimize human impact. Their shell is already hardened and they hace one or two small claws on their front fins, to help them break their way out of the shell.

Esp: Nos dejaron sentir uno, y movian las aletas sin parar .. estaran nadando durante los proximos 3 dias , sin comer y sin parar hasta que esten a salvo de depredadores. De cada 1000 bebes son unos pocos los que sobreviven los primeros dias.

Unbelievable, eh?.. Probably one of the cutest pic we took so far.

Esp: Esta es una de las fotos mas bonitas que hemos podido captar de todo el viaje …

Our guide, Jim explained how they count the hatchlings, then they dig up the nest to count the number of eggs, there were a few who didn’t make it out of their shell, and a handful too who did, but didn’t make it to the top, there was a sad “Oooooohhhhh” from our group as he picked up the dead babies to count them, but I guess that’s all part of nature….

This particular nest had 120 eggs, 93 hatchlings made it out to the ocean, 5 died after hatching, and the rest never made it out of their shell 🙁

Esp: Jim el guia de Mon-repos nos explico que cuentan cada huevo, cada cria muerta, hacen un estudio muy detallado , ya que estos animales estan en peligro de extincion… cuando saco las tortuguitas que no sobrevivieron en la arena se oyo un ..ohhhhhhh alrededor.. fue muy emocionante. Este nido tecia 120 huevos, sobrevivieron 93 listos para zambullirse en el oceano, 5 no llegaron a salir a la superficie y el resto eran huevos sin desarrollar

To make sure as many as possible make it into the sea we were used as a human runway, where we shine torches from the sea to the turtles so that they follow the direction of the light towards the sea, as they pass under our legs, some even crawl over your toes, now that tickles, especially as you have to stay comepletely still, but an amasing experience to come so close to nature! The next day we wandered along the beach, just out of curiosity ti see if any of those turtles got washed back up on the shore or never made it out to sea… But as far as we coult see they all made it 🙂 Many will be back in about 30 years or so as they reach maturity to lay their eggs, amazingly, they always return to the beach where they were born to lay their eggs when they reach alduthood, to start the whole circle of life again!

Esp: En este centro para asegurarse que el maximo numero de ellos sobrevive en la primera carrera hacia el oceano , hicimos una cadena humana con linternas (ya que siguen la luz) hasta el agua.. nos pasaron por debajo de las piernas …Y asi les vimos ir directos al agua a todos los pequeñitos , muchos viajaran tan lejos como Peru, muchas de las hembras a los 30 volveran a la playa donde nacieron para volver a poner huevos y completar el ciclo de la vida de nuevo. Una vez mas tenemos que subrayar la labor de esta gente por el estudio de estos animales (hay muchas cosas que no sabemos , por ejemplo como se orientan para volver a la misma playa ) y tambien cambiar poco a poco costumbres que hacen que el numero de tortugas esten incrementando de nuevo… las tortugas llegaron a nadar con dinosaurios asi que no seria justo que por nosotros desaparecieran.

Oh, and here’s the famous green tree frog! Just like Kermet
Ahh.. La rana gustavo estaba por aqui tambien.