Hervey Bay - Day 18
I finally arrived at Hervey Bay at 6.30 this morning after 12 hours on the bus. Luckily I managed to sleep for a lot of it as I was so shattered, but I did wake up loads too. So basically I checked into the hostel, dumped my bags, and went outside to wait for my lift to the marina, without even having time for a shower, yuk!
The whale watching was a great experience, but I can't believe I'd got on a boat again straight after my sailing yesterday! We sailed right out by Fraser Island (which is where I'm going tomorrow) and kept our eyes peeled for whales. After not too long a time, we saw 3 humpback whales swimming past, the crew told us we should wave our hands around and make some noise as it attracts them, so we were all waving our arms about like complete lunatics and they did hang around for a bit, but they didn't come so close to the boat. Then we set off again to look for some more, the sea was pretty rough, so a few times the boat got really rocky and I even managed to get absolutely soaked, I was a bit annoyed as I'd only washed all my clothes yesterday (bit grumpy because I'm tired) anyway, after seeing a few more from a distance, later on a whale came right up to the boat, it was so close I was gobsmacked, he was huge! He was playing around and waving his fins and putting on a show for us, it was so cool, I took about 100 photos, it was amazing. The guy on the boat said he was only about 4 years old, so was not fully grown yet, even though he was massive. The whale was so graceful, brilliant to watch one in the wild. We were told that the whales come to Hervey Bay for about a week on their way to migrating to Antartica, they go there as it's the only place on the east coast of Australia that is sheltered (by Fraser Island) so it's perfect water for them to play and 'people watch', apparently everywhere else you see them, they are just in transit and don't stop. Hervey bay is named as the best whale spotting place in the world and I can see why. The whale stayed right next to our boat for at least half an hour, swimming under it side to side and to the front and back, we were all running about the boat to see it again.....such a great thing for me to see, I never expected that they actually come up to the boat...this is definitely another of my highlights! I can't put my photos up yet, but will try soon.
Tomorrow is my 3 day 4 wheel drive safari on Fraser Island, we've just had our induction, there are 10 of us in my group, and yes, you guessed it I'm the oldest again!! I think I'm going to be Mum for the weekend, I don't want to be the responsible one, but I can see that I might have to be, I had to initiate the shopping lists etc etc earlier, and there are only 3 of us that can drive as everyone else is too young!! Actually, I'm really looking forward to it, driving over the largest sand island in the world, cool!! I'll keep you posted when I'm back on Monday.