My World Tuesday - A Whale of a time

I’ve mentioned this before but I have a fondness for found objects and chance encounters. I don’t really like the experience of organized tours, where people talk about guarantees of seeing things, or offer refunds if the “insert target animals here” do not show up. (But to be honest here, if I got the chance to go look at the big game in Africa I’d go, misgivings or not!)

When we were on Magnetic Island we hired a boat (and a driver!) for the day, for a round the island trip. It was great. Beaches you don’t normally get to. Different views of beaches you can get to. As we were leaving one beach we had the classic “there she blows” experience as a whale and her calf hit the surface a few 100 metres away. The mother then did the classic fluke wave and both whales moved towards us.

This was wonderful. The whales, which were almost certainly Humpback Whales, were not due to be around the island for another month or so. It would be fair to say that there was a bit of excitement on the boat! Both of my small people got really good views. After a short while the whales swam straight towards the boat – I had to stop taking pictures because they were too close! The idea of a wide angle shot of a whale was a bit too much for my brain to deal with. Both mother and calf swam under the boat – and although we were in no danger at all the phrase “were going to need a bigger boat!” came to mind.





In the end the whales moved off down the coast. It was just the five of us in a smallish boat, with two whales and the ocean. As found objects go, that’s a pretty rare find.

You can find lots of other good things to see here or by clicking on the My World Tuesday button on the RHS of the screen.

You can also see my most recent post on my other blog by clicking the Paying Ready Attention button on the RHS of the screen.