Summer cheer

Today's blip marks Grandma Jagger's 65th birthday and, because we're in Australia, this is the first time she's ever celebrated it in the summer!

We had a fairly relaxing morning before heading up the coast towards Mon Repos. We stopped off at Bundaberg (the home of Rum and Ginger Beer) before settling in watch loggerhead turtles climb the beach and lay their nests. It really was an amazing experience - even though we did leave the wee man at home with his Mum and Gooma.

It's hard to imagine the ordeal that these loggerheads go through in order to breed. Starting off as hatchlings, they take 12 years to swim from Austria to Peru, where they mate, before making the arduous journey back to the exact beach they departed from. The whole process takes about 17-20 years with only 1 in 1000 successfully making returning. Needless to say loggerheads are an endangered species.

Tonight we were fortunate to see a large female loggerhead scale the beach and lay 124 eggs. However, because she laid them too low down the beach, the rangers decided to relocate the eggs to a safer spot away from predators. Grandma was even asked to help by carry the eggs from one location to another!

A week after arriving, I'm pleased to report that the wee man seems to have settled into a sleeping pattern again. He's been having one or two naps during the day before hitting the sack around 6pm. He may wake up once or twice throughout the night but we've been able to settle him by bringing him into our bed, at least until about 5:30, by which time his cousin Oriana is usually wide awake and looking for a playmate.