Australia definitely loves its cutesy town names. Where else would you find a towns named Port Fairy, Silly Oak, Willi Willi or Surfer’s Paradise? After Noosa, we drove up the east coast and stopped at Rainbow Beach in the Great Sandy National Park of the Cooloola region.
Rainbow Beach is approximately 140 km north of Noosa. It got its name from the multi-coloured sand dunes surrounding the beach. Driving on the beach is quite popular in the area, many cars get stuck in the sand and need to be hauled (take a close look at the picture of the sand dunes below!).
We then drove on a long, windy road through the Great Sandy National Park to Hervey Bay, where we boarded the ferry to Fraser Island!
Fraser Island (also named K’gari) is an amazing, an undeveloped island (the largest sand island in the world) with long beaches, clear rainwater lakes and dense eucalyptus forests. It was named after Eliza Fraser, who was the wife of a sea captain whose ship foundered near the island in 1837. Eliza survived (her husband did not) and lived with the local aboriginal population before she was rescued some weeks later.
The island’s most famous inhabitants are dingoes, which have been known to steal babies and bite tourists vacationing on the island. There are signs everywhere about being “dingo-safe”, and our resort (one of two) was surrounded by electric fences to keep dingoes out. Chris and I took a full-day tour of the island, visiting the island’s best spots: 75-mile beach; Eli Creek; the Maheno Shipwreck (formerly a luxury cruise liner that later served as a hospital ship during WWI and foundered on Fraser Island in 1935).
We finished the day stopping off at the most stunning, beautifully clear Lake McKenzie: the clearest lake we have ever seen (good thing too, since I dropped our goggles in the water and Chris had no problem finding them!).
We also took a few walks in the beautiful forest to try and spot some dingoes and other wildlife, but unfortunately, no dingoes in sight for us, although we did see a sleeping python and a goanna (aka a huge lizard).
Once again, Chris made an awesome video of our time at Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island!
The following afternoon, back on the mainland from Fraser, we decided to make a 4-hour detour to Bundaberg to witness the turtle hatching. Hundreds of loggerhead turtles lay their eggs at Mon Repos Beach in Bundaberg at the end of the year, and the eggs hatch 8 weeks later, which means in January to March! At 9:30pm, under a starry sky, we made our way to the beach to one of the turtle nests, where a total of 120 tiny little squirmy turtles made their way out of the sandy nest, and climbed over small sand dunes and rocks. They then hurriedly scampered down to the beach, attracted by the light of the moon reflecting on the waves. A few of them even nibbled at Chris’ feet as they made their way to the water: who knew turtles were attracted to smell?
Once the turtles were all safely in the water, we returned to the nest to count the hatched turtle shells and the eggs that did not hatch. We found stragglers in the nest as well: two little turtles that had not made their way out with the rest of their siblings. We directed them to the surf, so that they can swim out to sea.
We were limited in the number of pictures we could take as light and flash confuses the turtles, so we decided not to take any and enjoy the moment. I’ve attached a few pictures and a video we found online to give you a sense of what we saw.
What an amazing experience! Was it worth the 4-hour detour? Definitely.
Also, here are three fun facts about loggerhead turtles:
- The temperature of the sand determines the sex of the turtles! If eggs are laid in warm (>27-28°C) sand, then they will develop into female turtles
- After they hatch, turtles swim for 2-3 days covering approximately 70 km to get away from the shore and predators
- During their childhood and teenage years, loggerhead turtles will “travel the world”, going as far as South America. They somehow return to Bundaberg 17 years later to mate and nest.
We then drove 2 hours back to Hervey Bay (where we were staying for the night), arrived at 1:30am and slept for 3 hours before catching the first flight out to Cairns at 6:45am.
Next stop: Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef!!!
Happy Wife, Aussie Life 
Guys this is so cool!! One of your best videos yet! So happy to hear you’re loving your new home. Hugs!! Xox
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