hervey Bay 2

We are back in HB to do a whale watch. The weather was OK today as we were picked up from the Fraser Coast Holiday Park and deposited at the public jetty in the port to board the Mikat for the cruise. The boat was a good size and well maintained, the crew were welcoming, friendly and effective. As we cruised across Hervey Bay, we went through a rain shower. The chop was about a half metre to a metre, but everyone was OK and eyes were peeled for whales. Within the first hour, we saw whales about 500 metres away. As we closed on them and stopped the engines, the whales came over to the boat to check us out. They stayed with us for a few minutes, then went off to find another boat to look at. The whales were juveniles, according to the experts on board. Our next sighting was of adult whales and they came right up to the boat and swam around, close to the bow and right side for some time. I was very busy snapping pics, but thse whales are slippery devils, appearing and disappearing very quickly. I had some great pics of swirling water with dark shapes under them.



On the way out, a little island in Hervey Bay.



The boat had a good turn of speed across the bay.

Fraser Island coastline.



Our first whale sighting

What are looking at??

Here's looking at you, kid

You can all kiss my....errr.....tail!

We had another sighting of whales after about ten minutes motoring to another spot and the whales came right up to the boat and stuck their heads out of the water to get a look at all of us looking at them. It was great! I got a phone call from Nools in the middle of this and it was phone in one hand, camera in the other and leaning on the railing trying not to get dumped on the deck as the boat was rising and falling about a metre at that stage. It was very interesting, to say the least, but I managed to say g'day to my Dad and Nools, so that's a bonus.

We had another few sightings of whales with pectoral fin waving and slapping, tail waving and slapping, but no breaching.

We had a lovely lunch on board and headed back along the western beach of Fraser Island, which is beautiful. We were back in port at around 2:00 pm and back at the caravan park at 2:45 after a very memorable day.

Off to Elliot Heads tomorrow to prepare for a visit to the Bundaberg air show and a visit from Michael and Ollie.

Till then, hoo roo.