Whales!

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Today is the birthday of a very special young man - Charlie Brown is eight years old - so a very happy birthday to you Charlie.

Yesterday morning I picked up a leaflet about a whale watching cruise that went from Coffs Harbour and was at half price through September. So I phoned and booked us on without knowing, of course, that we could see them from the headland at Woolgoolga. Every year between June and October thousands of humpback whales make the journey back down to Antarctica with their newly born calves after having gone up to the warmer waters off the Queensland coast earlier in the year to breed.

Sunday morning dawned with clear blue skies - the cruise boat went out at 9.30 so we were on the road by 8.15. Coffs Harbour was only 18 kms from where we were staying so we were soon there, passing the ‘Big Banana’ on the way! It was all happening at the harbour - cars were parked everywhere and then we saw why - a triathlon was taking place and the contestants were just coming in to get their bikes after the swim. There was also a market taking place but we couldn’t stop to take in any of those events as we had a boat to catch! We got our tickets with plenty of time to spare so we had a wander along the sea wall. There was plenty of space onboard as the boat was only about half full. The captain gave us some spiel about sea sickness and then we were off. It wasn’t too long before we saw our first whale and then we saw a female and her calf. The female was huge - about 40 feet in length - but you rarely get a clear sight of a whole whale unless they “breach”. But it’s still a wonderful experience and even when they ‘flute’ it’s a magnificent sight. We had quite a few sightings although they weren’t being too energetic - mainly rolling over - so none of them ‘breached’ fully. We also saw a few muttonbirds but no dolphins this time. It was a good trip - a great way to spend a couple of hours and all for $29!

We got back on shore and had a bit of lunch before wandering to the market which was still going on and very well attended. We saw signs indicating that there was a comedy busking event being held and there was a huge crowd watching two American entertainers which we watched for a while. They were very entertaining, quick witted and genuinely funny - the crowd loved them. We had a quick look round the stalls and then walked up the nearby headland - Muttonbird Island. Muttonbirds nest in burrows much the same as puffins do in the UK but it’s very early in the breeding season so there wasn’t much activity as they haven’t laid their eggs yet.

We drove back to Emerald Beach, made a few sandwiches and nipped back up to Woolgoolga Headland hoping to see a few more whales. But although we scanned the horizon for quite some time we didn’t see a single one - we must have been very lucky the previous night! It didn’t matter though as the view was great and we’d had such a wonderful day.

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