WHALE WATCHING HERVEY BAY
Day 31 - Thursday 15th October
WHALE WATCHING HERVEY BAY
After breakfast we said our goodbyes again to Nacho and Stefie and carried on south. Our destination was Hervey Bay! Not only is it close to Fraser Island which we have yet to explore, but it also is the jump off point to get out to see migrating hump back whales. Our boat was the first whale watching tour in the bay. After returning from a fishing trip on Fraser Island t
he owner thought he saw a log floating in the water then realised it was a whale. He started taking people out to see them in 1986 and is still going to this day. In the early days his friend would fly a light air craft out into the bay and do some sort of barrel roll manoeuvre to let the boat below know where the whales were. Unfortunately times have changed and the manny skippers in the bay share whale sightings with each other over the radio.
The boat only had a hand full of people on board and soon we were skimming out of the harbour out into the turquoise bay. A thin strip of white sand and green dunes on the edge of Fraser island was the only thing separating the vivid blue water from the vivid blue sky. It took about an hour for us to find our first leviathan. A mother and calf rolling their backs through the water side by side. Apparently the majority of sightings at this time of year are mothers traveling with their young back down to the Antarctic.
At first all we saw was the odd fin and if we were lucky the flick of their tails, then they got a bit more flamboyant. The young are still learning pretty much everything and after a feed are really energetic, slapping the water with their dorsal fins and rolling around onto their backs. At one point a group of three headed straight for our boat for a closer look. They slowly circled the boat only a few feet away. It was a magical feeling being so close to such a massive creature from the deep. They move so steady, slow and elegantly. After circling the boat they drifted off deep into the bay, leaving a glassy flat patch of water known as their "footprint". I though this was a silly as everyone knows whales don't have feet.
We took the quiet moment to grab a cheeky coffee and biscuit. Just when Helen turned her back a huge calf launched itself out of the water. If was incredible, you could see all the lines and grooves on its belly, and the powerful splash it made rocked the boat. Helen was a little pissed off and decided the calf was watching her and did it on purpose, however not long after another fully breached just to the left of us, again rising the majority of its enormous body clear out of the surface. Helen was happy again.
We watched many other whales flipping and flapping their fins, blowing clouds of mist into the air and every now and then having a crack at flying. It was so amazing to see them so close up. After a few hours out with these magnificent creatures we sadly had to head back to port. The mother and calf we had been following waved us good bye as we turned to leave. It was a fantastic experience, one we will both never forget.
