A Whale of a Time

Monday 25th September was Erin's 30th Birthday so in order to celebrate we went up to Hervey Bay to go Whale Watching. It's about a 2.5 hr drive up there, so it was a nice easy day trip. We went out with Whalesong Cruises and did the 1pm - 5.30pm lunch time cruise. The day was beautiful, sunny and warm and the bay was very calm, unfortunately the whales are pretty docile in calm water. Our talented captain was able to find some playful pods nevertheless and we saw some amazing breeches, pectoral slaps and tail slaps. It was pretty stunning seeing these awesome creatures up close, some were within 20 - 30 meters from the boat. The power of them is massive but the grace with which they move is almost at odds with their size.

Hayden was perhaps a few months too young to really take in the adventure, he didn't process that we had to be on the boat for about an hour and a half before we saw any whales, he was tired of being in a confined space and he asked to 'go home' a couple of times. After we'd stopped to view the first calf and mother I took him inside where there were some toys and then the crew put a video on for the kids, kept him occupied for the rest of the trip!! He came out to see the whales at the end as they were waving bye-bye so that was good enough for him. We'd evidently gone a lot further north than they usually do in order to find an active pod so our ride back into the harbour was over 2 hours, we were consequently late arriving back but the consolation was the wonderful sunset we witnessed as we headed to shore - nature never ceases to provide does she!