1770 to Noosa

It wasn’t until we got to 1770 (near Agnes Waters) that we thought finally a decent beach in a very special location, Picture a magical beach bay with one pub/restaurant on the point only one caravan park opposite the beach, and a surf beach beyond the rocks, it has something for all water lovers! It’s no wonder it’s full of locals who obviously migrate here every year during this summer period.

The plan was to stay one night and move on, but after one afternoon here it was obvious by all of us that we just had to stay an extra night..The park was full of locals who must come here every year for the summer, and it looks like they have been coming here for generations as everyone knew each other. We got to meet the local campers on the second night as we had a small community come over to our campsite and have quite a few drinks with us, as they were very interested to here from the Sydney travelling circus and our travels. Whilst at 1770 we also decided to go on a tour of the bay in the local LARC adventure (Lighter Amphibious Resupply Cargo). This is a trip across the sandbars and the bay in a US World War II amphibious vehicle which was developed for various naval activities on both land and sea and is now re-decked out and used as a tourist attraction here locally. It was great fun as we got to see the bay from another angle and got quite wet going up and down the sand bars into the water.

Leaving 1770 we headed to Bargara (near Bundaberg) as we wanted to visit to see the sea turtles lay their eggs on the beach at Mon Repos, which is one of the only beaches in Qld where this happens during this part of the year. What a spectacle of viewing mother nature in action, the female turtles come in at night and beach themselves, they then dig the egg chamber, lay their eggs, back fill the chamber then head back into the sea where they will never see their baby turtles again. The odds are against these turtles from the minute they are born as only 1 in 1000 turtles survive till adulthood.The Turtle rookery at Mon Repos is run by the local National Park Rangers and the local sea turtle research centre, it is extremely well run to ensure there is no disruption to the turtles during this delicate procedure every evening. It was quite a long wait and a late night as you to wait till the turtles come in at night to lay their eggs, well worth the wait and the experience is just magical! We were very surprised to learn that these loggerhead sea turtles live a very lonely life, from the minute they are born they live entirely independent and don’t associate with any other turtles all their life apart from when they mate. Also, the turtle we saw was not previously tagged, which meant this was its first time it has laid eggs, which also meant this would have been its first time it has been back to land (the beach) in 25 or 30 years as that’s how old they are before they are mature enough to mate. Other than when they lay eggs they live totally at sea, what an amazing creature and we felt so special to be able to witness this first hand..

We are slowing moving further south and in two minds as to which way to go next, as we are nearing our time away and have come to our last week of travels before we need to be home. After visiting many smaller seaside towns along the way, Woodgate, Hervey Bay, Torquay, we decided we would base ourselves just outside Noosa in Tewantin to spend a few days by the beach and rest up before we make the final journey home!