At 10.30 yesterday morning I crossed the border into the land where pubs are clearly marked with four X's, and suddenly I was transported back in time, because they don't observe daylight saving here. Apparently it fades the curtains...
I travelled from Brunswick Heads to Hervey Bay in a non-stop drive. It took me just over five hours and I got here about 1.30 in the afternoon. Hervey Bay is much bigger than I imagined. After I arrived yesterday I thought that I'd take a walk from the unit I am staying at to the boat harbour to check out what activities are available and whether I could take a day trip across to Fraser Island to do some driving on sand. It took me over an hour to get there, so it must be over six kilometres. The whole way can be walked or cycled along the foreshore, away from the road, on a track that is shaded by trees and cooled down by a lovely sea breeze; it was a most pleasant walk there and back. Hervey Bay is a conglomerate of 5 different towns, and has a total population of 64,000, and that is without tourists. When you first arrive you drive through a large industrial estate that is home to all the big chain stores that you can imagine. The whole precinct is bigger than anything comparable in Canberra. The hotels and tourist parks are mainly in the suburbs along the foreshore road, which is called The Esplanade and it has the holiday feel that you'd expect. Torquay is the suburb that seems to have most of the small shops and restaurants. I am staying in a suburb called Scarness, just next to Torquay, and I got an absolute bargain with a large two bedroom apartment on The Esplanade (my balcony has a sea view) at $90 per night.
Unfortunately the cost of taking the car ferry across to Fraser Island was outside my budget, so I decided to take a 1/2 day whale watching trip instead. I was picked up by a very cheerful bus driver at 7.45 this morning who took me, and some other punters, to the boat harbour, where we boarded a very snazzy new whale watching boat. The boat was quite big, but there were only about 20 customers, so we had plenty of space to move around. I did consider booking onto one of the smaller sailing boats, but now I am glad that I didn't because the whales are a long way out, so a speedy boat gives you more whale watching time.
We sailed out through the Great Sandy Strait, which runs between the main land and Fraser Island, to a large bay on the northern edge of Fraser Island. Platypus Bay is used by the whales to take a break on their journey south to Antarctica. The females use the break to prepare their calves for the journey and the males use the break to find a female to mate with and create a new calf for next year. Apparently the females are ready again soon after giving birth and have a gestation period of eleven months. It took us about 50 minutes until we spotted the first pod of whales. It was a mother with her calf.
They weren't very active and after a while the mother stuck her tail in the air and hung there to give a drink to the young. Apparently they drink a few hundred litres of 45% fat milk every day. After the feed the young one did a couple of jumps, but unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo of these. However, we did spot a lot of splashing some way away and when we got there we saw a mother and calf being harassed by five males. The whole thing was quite boisterous and there was a lot of tail slapping. Apparently tail slapping is a way of communicating, but is also used to warn other whales off. I managed to catch some of it as a video
In the afternoon I drove a little way along the coast and visited some of the small fishing communities. There wasn't much to see because it was low tide, so all the coast was just a large mud flat; it is clearly very sandy and shallow around here.
Tomorrow I am heading further North, towards Airlie Beach, where I will take a break for four days and check out the Whitsunday Islands.
I travelled from Brunswick Heads to Hervey Bay in a non-stop drive. It took me just over five hours and I got here about 1.30 in the afternoon. Hervey Bay is much bigger than I imagined. After I arrived yesterday I thought that I'd take a walk from the unit I am staying at to the boat harbour to check out what activities are available and whether I could take a day trip across to Fraser Island to do some driving on sand. It took me over an hour to get there, so it must be over six kilometres. The whole way can be walked or cycled along the foreshore, away from the road, on a track that is shaded by trees and cooled down by a lovely sea breeze; it was a most pleasant walk there and back. Hervey Bay is a conglomerate of 5 different towns, and has a total population of 64,000, and that is without tourists. When you first arrive you drive through a large industrial estate that is home to all the big chain stores that you can imagine. The whole precinct is bigger than anything comparable in Canberra. The hotels and tourist parks are mainly in the suburbs along the foreshore road, which is called The Esplanade and it has the holiday feel that you'd expect. Torquay is the suburb that seems to have most of the small shops and restaurants. I am staying in a suburb called Scarness, just next to Torquay, and I got an absolute bargain with a large two bedroom apartment on The Esplanade (my balcony has a sea view) at $90 per night.
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| The beach 50 meters from my bargain apartment |
Unfortunately the cost of taking the car ferry across to Fraser Island was outside my budget, so I decided to take a 1/2 day whale watching trip instead. I was picked up by a very cheerful bus driver at 7.45 this morning who took me, and some other punters, to the boat harbour, where we boarded a very snazzy new whale watching boat. The boat was quite big, but there were only about 20 customers, so we had plenty of space to move around. I did consider booking onto one of the smaller sailing boats, but now I am glad that I didn't because the whales are a long way out, so a speedy boat gives you more whale watching time.
We sailed out through the Great Sandy Strait, which runs between the main land and Fraser Island, to a large bay on the northern edge of Fraser Island. Platypus Bay is used by the whales to take a break on their journey south to Antarctica. The females use the break to prepare their calves for the journey and the males use the break to find a female to mate with and create a new calf for next year. Apparently the females are ready again soon after giving birth and have a gestation period of eleven months. It took us about 50 minutes until we spotted the first pod of whales. It was a mother with her calf.
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| Mother hump back with calf |
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| Mother's tail |
In the afternoon I drove a little way along the coast and visited some of the small fishing communities. There wasn't much to see because it was low tide, so all the coast was just a large mud flat; it is clearly very sandy and shallow around here.
Tomorrow I am heading further North, towards Airlie Beach, where I will take a break for four days and check out the Whitsunday Islands.
The video doesn't seem to show on my iPad. Probably lack of support for mp4 files.
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