Thar She Blows!

The second day of our get away we went whale watching. We were in Hervy Bay, which is an area where the whales migrate to to have their babies. We started out on a sailboat, which would be cool (but all day excursion) Because when we saw whales we would be close to the water and be up close and personal. But about an hour and a half into our journey to where the whales were that day the steering on the boat broke and we had to turn around, they offered us a voucher to come back but we weren't sure we would make it back, so after a lunch on shore we decided to seize the day and got on a faster, larger boat for an afternoon tour. It took about an hour to get to where some whale pods were and for the next two hours we were delighted to see whales swimming around and underneath the boat. They would roll on their backs, wave a fin at all the funny looking creatures on the boat who would all wave back at them. A few came in for a closer peek at us. If we had ten foot arms we could have touched them. The whales we saw were humpback whales. They put a microphone in the water and we heard the whale song. We saw them swirling, rolling, spouting, waving and of course the famous whale tails. We did see two breaching or coming out of the water. Whales can reach between 40 to 50 feet long and can weigh up to 48 tons. They are grey or black in color with white markings which are different for every whale allowing researchers to identify them individually. 

It was a great day, even with the broken sail boat. We are so glad we were able to go. We enjoyed being with the Rancies, seeing the whales up close and being on the beautiful, clear waters of Australia.