Hey, everyone! My time in Hervey Bay was short… but it was definitely sweet. My main objective here was to go whale watching and it was quite possibly the best day ever.

Hervey Bay

I arrived at Hervey Bay at 1am and had a 40 minutes walk to get to my accommodation for the evening. Forty minutes is a fine walk but it is a pain when carrying a large backpack, a small backpack, and a tote bag filled with belongings haha.

Flashpackers is the only hostel in Hervey Bay and is quite a pretty penny – $54/night. Geez! Most of these hostels are $30-$40. I supposed now that I’m on the East Coast, it’s a little more expensive. And yet, I’m in a four bed dorm… so in a way, it’s worth it to have less people to deal with (i.e. snoring).

I ended up going to sleep right away since it was after 2am by the time I got to my room.

In the morning, I caught up with family back home and had a relatively chill day. While on the phone with my brother, though, I spotted a lizard! At first, it almost looked like a frilled-neck lizard but they aren’t really found over here. I was pretty certain it was a bearded dragon and sure enough, it was! What a delight. I had no idea they were in Hervey Bay.

When I first saw the dragon, it was a little spooked by me. It ended up running up a tree. While still on the phone with my brother, I walked back to my hostel to get my camera. Upon my return, I was able to spot the dragon again. I snapped some pictures and then sat on a bench. The dragon kept its eyes on me but it was cute to be sitting there chatting with my brother with a bearded dragon hanging out a couple of feet away.

When I was leaving, I snapped another picture and it actually did puff out its beard slightly. They’re not unlike frilled-necks in that they can puff themselves out to look larger/more intimidating. It didn’t puff out fully, so I must not have been that much of a threat.

Apparently the juveniles are mostly arboreal, but adult bearded dragons hang out on the ground.

What a cool sighting on my first day in Hervey Bay! I actually ended up seeing two more on another day while walking along the esplanade (below).

My main wildlife excitement, though… was the whales.

Hervey Bay Whale Watch Tour

If you know me, you know I adore whales. My obsession began on a whale watching tour in Maine. Since then, I’ve seen them in South Africa, Oregon, Hawai’i, New York, Alaska, and now Australia. I feel like I’m forgetting somewhere haha but that might actually be it. And now… to see whales in Hervey Bay!

My hopes weren’t incredibly high since the tours in Perth weren’t very eventful. Hervey Bay is supposedly an excellent spot for the humpbacks though. Their annual migration is interrupted by K’gari (Fraser) Island. With the obstacle of this island in place, most whales stop there for a few days if not a week to rest along their journey. Here, they are more relaxed. They play, rest, and have a little holiday in Platypus Bay.

I booked a tour with Hervey Bay Whale Watch which is the oldest whale watching company in Australia. How cool!

I woke up early since I had to walk for about an hour to get to the marina. Upon arriving, I checked in and was able to board shortly after. We were served with warm croissants and tea. Yahoo! We pulled out of the marina and had to pick up more guests at the Kingfisher Resort before heading over to Platypus Bay to check out some whales.

Once we’d left Kingfisher and were on our way to Platypus Bay, I saw some dolphins fully flipping out of the water. It reminded me of the spinner dolphins in Hawai’i.

And then, the whales…

When we spotted our first whale and got close enough, the skipper turned off the engines. We were told to start whistling and waving our arms in the air – it gauges the whales’ curiosity. So we did! Before long, the juvenile whale started circling around the boat, checking us out. It was SO CLOSE to the boat, it probably could have knocked it over if it wanted to. To see a whale so close, to hear the noises of the whale exhaling from its blowhole… I just can’t help but cry out, “Oh, my God! You’re so beautiful! You’re so amazing!” The only other time I’d had such a close whale encounter was in Maui.

The whale stayed with us for a while, doing the occasional fin slap. More impressively, he would do a tail slap every now and then. We watched him for a while but we had only just entered Platypus Bay… we had many more whales to observe – so we continued along.

Off in the distance, we saw another boat checking out some whales. There were a number of them there – some doing simultaneous fin slaps, one of them doing a spy hop (which is where they pop their head out of the water a little bit to check their surroundings). No full breaches, though. They were fun to watch since they were very active.

Before long, we had heaps of options to choose from. Which whales to approach? We decided on two whales that were traveling in a pair, floating near the surface. We started whistling and waving our arms but they weren’t very interested in us. We moved along.

What happened next was… absolutely amazing. We found a whale who was interested in us. It started circling the boat, just like the first had. And then, not too far out, we saw the pair of whales who had previously been resting do a SIMULTANEOUS BREACH out of the water!

Breaches are hands down my favorite whale activity. It is extraordinary to see these multi-ton beasts propel themselves out of the water. Extraordinary.

Then they just kept breaching over and over while the new whale continued to check us out. I was losing my mind with glee. And to make it even better, the skipper called out over the speaker, “for those wanting to swim, start getting ready”.

YES!!!

The Swim

I had heard swimming with humpbacks was a potential in Hervey Bay and was very keen to do it. I have wanted to swim with whales for the longest time but never thought it would be an option… so when I found out it was an option… I jumped at the opportunity.

To be able to swim with the humpbacks, the conditions need to be right. The weather and ocean needs to be relatively calm, but more importantly the whale needs to be calm. I think we were initially going to swim with our first whale but after its aggressive tail slaps, the skipper decided against it. I was thinking I wouldn’t be able to get in the water at all.

So, when the skipper announced over the loudspeaker that we should get ready, I kicked off my shoes, my jumper and my shirt faster than anyone ever has before. I grabbed my snorkel and my GoPro and went to the back deck. I was the first there and I’m so glad I was. “Go on in,” the deckhand said, and I descended down the ladder and into the ocean, grabbing the rope we were required to hold on to while in the water. “It’s right there,” the deckhand told me.

I dunked my head in the water and looked. Sure enough, there I was, looking at a whale. It was turning around and looked up at me as it did so. It then swam below me and away. The others were in the water, too, at this point.

The whale then went to the front of the boat. It returned for a second lap – but it was really that first experience that nailed it for me. To have a whale pointed right at me, acknowledging my existence… I told my friends and family “I can just die happy now,” haha. Life, complete.

The whale lost interest in us quickly and since the tour was coming to a close, we were pulled back in. The swim was an extra $100, paid only after a successful swim. This was the biggest shock and nicest thing ever, but the skipper decided to knock it down to $30 since it was such a brief encounter. With the extra $70 I had been planning to spend on the swim, I ended up recycling the money back into a second whale watching tour.

What. A. DAY!

Whale Watch: Take Two

I had a feeling when I initially was considering taking a second whale watching tour that it may be “too much of a good thing”.

I was really hoping to get in the water again with a whale, but on my second tour, none of the whales were interested enough to hang around our boat. The guests this time were also not nearly as excitable as the first group. During the first tour, everyone was whistling, waving their arms in the air to get the attention of the whales. This time it seemed as if everyone was too embarrassed to do so. Such a bummer!

Still, any day with whales is going to be a good day. AND we saw more dolphins and even some sea turtles popping their heads out of the water!

Most of the whales were pretty chill – floating near the surface, doing the occasional fin slap.

It seemed any time our boat started to approach the whales, they would stop all surface activity and hide from us. They were not having it today!

You never know what you’ll see on a whale watching tour. That’s part of the fun. Sometimes you see the most incredible activity, like the other day. Other times, you might be lucky just to see their backs and their tails as they dive under.

The main excitement of the trip was when a whale started breaching pretty close to the boat. Hooray! I was finally able to get the “breaching” picture that I wanted. In focus and close enough where it would pick up on the detail of the whale.

I was a little disappointed I wasn’t able to swim with them this time (and for longer) – but hey, I had an incredible experience the other day and I can’t discredit that. Surely, one day in the future, I’ll be able to swim with a humpback once more. I need things to look forward to. If I’ve seen everything… then what’s left?

Miscellaneous

One of the guests from the Whitsundays sailing trip ended up being at the same Hervey Bay hostel as me, which was cute. She and my dorm mate ended up joining me for a night walk one night. Nadia is from the UK and Adam is an Australian. It was funny to have the three of us – an Ozzie, a Pommy, and a Yankee. We had a nice time, although for some reason the three of us had the hardest time deciphering one another’s accents haha. Along the night walk, we spotted some kind of weird beetle and a cane toad. No spiders, though. I was certain there would be spiders around – I even saw a huntsman just outside the hostel the night I got in. Alas.

Another day, I went walking down to Esa Park which is an area along the coast. That’s where I saw the two other bearded dragons! I also went to the cemetery to see some kangaroos. That may be the last time I see kangaroos as surely they won’t be in downtown Sydney haha.

Oh… and how could I POSSIBLE forget this? On my walk back from the first whale watching tour, I saw a tawny frogmouth during the daytime for the first time ever. Until then, I’d only seen them at night – in Tasmania twice and then again in Darwin. I love tawny frogmouths!

There is also a massive pier in Hervey Bay. It doesn’t compare to Busselton Jetty, but it’s pretty long!

I walked along it after my first whale watching tour.

Art of the Week

I really like the wispy hair in this one – I don’t think I’ve ever really tried to do that before, where it looks like wind is blowing through someone’s hair. Continuing along with the theme… still loving it. Not totally in love with this piece. The face looks kind of strange to me, as if it doesn’t fit on the neck properly. Sigh. That’s alright – I enjoyed making it and I’m really liking the new style.

Reflections

Not too much to reflect on as it’s only been a few days since my last post. I wanted to publish this one sooner than later though since I had so much to say about the whales. It’s better to do shorter posts more often (short, HA! They somehow all end up being long!) than to be totally overwhelmed trying to catch up on all these activities haha.

From Hervey Bay, I am taking the Greyhound to Noosa. I’ll be there for a night before starting a 3 day, 2 night tour to Fraser Island. It’s a 4×4 convoy, so we’ll be driving around the island and camping. I am really looking forward to it! I think it’ll be a great way to make friends. I’m hoping to spot a dingo, too!

That’s all for now! Until next time, sending you all my love.

xx