Part 2 #contikistorytellers – Five Rocks Beach Clean with Surfrider Foundation

It was a long journey kinda day, as we headed 8 hours down the coast to Capricorn Resort in Yeppoon. A random location you may think, but we were here for our first active experience with Surfrider Foundation.

Incase you missed my last post (click here to read), I’m out here in Australia doing an environmental project with Contiki Travel and Surfrider Australia.

11 of us will be telling our story as we witness both the incredible beauty that Australia has to offer but also the devastating effects of Plastic pollution on the beaches and marine life.

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It’s time to spread the word. 

To show you what destruction we, humans, are doing to the earth & what we can do to take responsibility.

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The Surfrider team met us at our hotel bright and early at 6.50am before leading us on a 4X4 ride through the dunes to Little Five Rocks Beach, a secluded pocket of coastline. 

Little Five Rocks beach washes up an incredible amount of plastic due to its positioning, the tides and the swells, and we were here to witness it.

I’ve been to many a beach in my time but I’ve never noticed any significant plastic pollution aside from the odd piece here and there.

Honestly the moment we walked onto this beach, my jaw dropped.

Packaging, bottle tops, fishing equipment, crates, bottles, flip flops, string, toothbrushes… you name it – the lot.

It was honestly as if someone had set the whole thing up. 

Like they had come down to the beach and just emptied a skip full of plastic onto the beach to prove a point.

In just under an hour we collected 112kg of plastic  – and believe me, we could have gone for days. 

Really we only just touched the surface, on just one single beach.

It’s not okay. It’s heart breaking. It’s real. Not only is it ruining the gorgeous natural beauty we are blessed with but it is killing marine life and being invested by fish.

And to think – we eat these fish.

There are traces of plastic in all of us.

The consequences of plastic pollution are vast, dangerous and still, the problem is getting worse by the day.

We may not be able to change the law on the use of plastic industrially, but we can change our association with and usage of.

Today’s beach clean was incredibly eye opening. Even just in the last few days I have actively been noticing just HOW MUCH day to day activity involves plastic.

Try it yourself. Just for today, be conscious of everything you use and come in contact with. How much of it is made out of plastic?

If there’s an option to avoid plastic, particularly single use of the stuff – take it.

(Reusable bags, coffee cups, travel toiletries etc)

More on how you can take responsibility and help preserve our incredibly stunning planet coming soon as we head on another Surfrider adventure in Sydney.

STAY TUNED.

WATCH THE VIDEO OF OUR ADVENTURE HERE…