Whales in the bay

We had planned to travel through the Glass House Mountains on our way to Hervey Bay but decided, as we needed to catch an afternoon Whale Watching boat, to travel without this detour and try to see them on our way back to Brisbane. This proved to be a good decision as we reached the harbour and the booking office with only half an hour to spare before the sailing. Grabbing our wraps and sandwiches (very kindly prepared to take away by one of the quay side restaurants) we boarded to start what turned out to be a truly amazing afternoon. We had brought binoculars to view, if we were lucky we thought, anything in the way of whale activity. We didn’t need them. 45 minutes in to our journey a small pod (group) of whales was sighted and our boat headed over towards them.

Peep-po

Engines were cut and we were encouraged to go on deck and wave and call out (no, not an episode of ‘Are You Being Framed’) The whales are apparently inquisitive creatures who enjoy interaction with human beings – well as long as they aren’t brought by factory ships armed with harpoons!). The noise and activity seemed to do the trick as the pod swam over to investigate at close quarters and then proceeded to swim around and under the boat, occasionally diving, blowing through their air holes or splashing the water with their flippers.

Whale spume

The captain told us that these were only babies of about 2 years old weighing in at around 2 tons apiece. They must have spent at least an hour with us before the boat moved on when we then saw a couple of adults who treated us to more antics, including breaches (where they hurl their whole bodies at great speed out of the water). It is difficult to explain why all this was so moving – I guess it is the fact that they are huge creatures and yet so gentle, friendly and trusting. Sadly it was time to head back to the harbour.

All good things come to an end; sunset on the way back from whale watching

We got back to the car and drove to the accommodation that Ang and Oli had booked for the night to be greeted by the owner, with the inspiring and welcoming words - “well, you're lucky I didn't let your room, you're very late”. It was just 6 pm! Anyway we unpacked and after a hasty trip to the supermarket got started on tea while Rick went to settle with our friendly landlady. We were due to make a very early start the next morning for our adventure to Frazer Island and also wanted to book ourselves in for the night of our return from there.

Brisbane, Australia