Naturally Brewed Mate!

Mum has a guide book that has heaps of information specifically on the East Coast of Australia, so while in Rockhampton she read up about a small council zoo and botanical gardens so we checked it out. I wasn’t feeling well at all because I had been having bad sleeps because we had thin mattresses and the Aussie soil wasn’t very soft. I haven’t had one sleep here where I have slept through the whole night without waking up at least twice. Before we got to Rockhampton thought, I went for a walk on the beach with mum and Esmee. It won’t stop raining! It sucks for us because we came for the sun, but its good for the Aussies because they are in a severe drought so they are loving the rain at the moment. On my way doing the dishes I felt something on my toe. It was an electric ant! It wasn’t quick enough to bite me though. I flicked it off immediately.

The Rockhampton zoo wasn’t too bad for a council research centre. We saw our first koalas! They were very sleepy. We were the only ones there and one of the rangers was walking a dingo through the park. They has wombats and heaps of different types of birds of all colours. We could hear the chimps from the other end of the zoo (though it wasn’t very big), so went over to check them out. We also saw some wallabies, kanga’s and a python. Even though they are non venomous they are still pretty scary and can kill you if they really want to! After a short walk through the botanical gardens, we left and saw that we had 600km to go until Brisbane. We have been thinking about taking a tour to Fraser Island, but have decided not too because its too expensive. Fraser Island is a beautiful Island just north of Brisbane. It is an island of complete sand and you can only go there with a 4wd. They have beautiful fresh water lakes in the middle which are surrounded by forests. There is no soil, its pretty much sand! Its a beautiful place, mum and dad went there 20 years ago. I would have loved to do it, but most of the 4wd were sold out anyway so the lady at the information shop suggested sky diving to me as an alternative. Uh.. maybe later!



Wallabys

So we hit the road again and ended up in Bundaberg! Yes this is the home town of the famous Bundaberg ginger beer and lemon lime and bitters. I thought of Kieran, Ross’s little brother - I know he likes his ginger beer! Camiel was keen as to visit ‘The Barrel’, where you could do a small tour on the Bundaberg drinks. The tour wasn’t bad. They had a 3d movie and interesting facts about the Bundaberg and how it is naturally brewed and everything. They even had free tasting! I walked out with a ten pack of lemon lime and bitters because it was cheap (Only $10!).


Bunndaaberrrggg!!!

Then we drove down to a beach called Mon Repos Beach, which is famous for sea turtle laying and hatching. You have to book tours to see the sea turtles, but it was booked out until the 1st of January, and we were going to be 300km south by the time January came around... We checked out the beach anyway to see if we could see any sea turtles. They sea turtles come from about November to January to lay their eggs at night. The eggs take about eight weeks to hatch, so from February to May you can watch them hatch. The turtles dig their eggs into the ground, so when they hatch the turtles have to make their way to the surface and then to the sea. Its quite amazing to see, as the turtles are endangered.


We found a turtle!

On our way back from Mon Repos we saw kangaroos in the wild! We also saw (and heard!) many kookaburras! We had dinner at McD, before driving to Maryborough to set up camp in the dark. We were pro campers by now, so the darkness wasn’t a problem!

Hope you are all well!
Fem
xox