Today was very special for 2 reasons.  We had a close encounter with some of the planets largest inhabitants and ended the day with someone who is special to my family.

We woke up in Hervey Bay and all was calm. 2 Pelicans gracefully glided about on the calm sea. We were at the marina by 7:30am. Ready and excited for our whale watching trip. Hervey Bay has a huge and very busy marina. We headed out on Whalesong which was excellent. Once the boat got going we were served a delicious breakfast with teas and coffees.  The square thing on my plate was a vegetable frittata.  They seem popular over here and are an excellent way to combine vegetables with protein. Our boat had viewing decks all the way round. So having eaten, all we had to do was wait.  It is full moon so the tides were particularly high.  The whales had moved far out in to the bay so we had to sail much further than usual. Hervey Bay is next to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world.  They were burning the bush on parts of the island which is done regularly. Finally we saw some whales.  I missed that shot! We saw 2 groups of whales.  A Mother and her calf and then 3 male whales.  The female and her calf did not come close enough for me to take photos worth sharing but the 3 males were very inquisitive and came right up to our boat. These are Humpback Whales. The 5th largest whales in the world. They waved their flippers, turned around in the water and basically put on a really good show for us all. It is impossible for my pictures to show you how large they are but as an indication the calf would weigh approximately 4 – 5 tonnes which is similar to an elephant.  The adults weigh 10 times that much and are longer than the boat we were on. I am really pleased with this photo as I think you can see the whales’ eye on the right hand side of the picture. This was taken looking straight down as they dived under the boat. Our boat had a microphone which they put in the water so we could hear the whale song. It was absolutely magical. Bye bye beautiful whales.  Thank you for allowing us to watch you play and for coming so close to us. We sailed back next to Fraser Island.  Unfortunately we don’t have time to visit it this trip but I hear it is beautiful. Farewell Hervey Bay, that was a short but sweet visit. On the road we stopped at Maryborough for lunch of fish and chips.  It looked greasy and revolting but actually the batter was like tempura and very crispy so it was really good. After about 3 hours we came to our next destination.  Dicky Beach, Caloundra which is just North of Brisbane. We are staying with someone very special to our family 🙂