On our way out of Yeppoon we decided to wander a little further down the coast to check out a sculpture called The Singing Ship that commemorated James Cook's exploration of the Australian east coast. It was situated in a uniquely named place called Emu Park on a bluff overlooking the ocean and an absolutely gorgeous view. We took pictures with the ocean in the background but I was having a bit of trouble mustering a smile having moments before been dived bombed by an aggressive magpie and quite literally pecked in the head! He or she almost got Colin too and necessitated a wary and hasty return to the camper.
Once we were on our way we had another longish slog ahead of us as we were attempting to get ourselves to the home of Australian whale watching - Hervey Bay - about 440kms away. Highlights of this drive included: sidestepping places like Rockhampton which has a very western feel and apparently 2 million cattle in the surrounding area, stopping for lunch in another information kiosk in a place called Miriam Vale, and making a detour outside of Childers from some excellent macadamia nut ice cream. The ice cream stop had two types of drama; the first was my second momentary lapse in terms of the right and wrong side of the road and the second was the very surreal experience of eating ice cream on a bench while watching My Fair Lady on a huge flat screen tv in the backyard of the ice cream shop. In spite of both experiences, we left no worse for wear and in no time we were wending our way through Hervey Bay in search of the next Big 4!
Now that we were "pros" at setting up camp, the kids were quickly in the pool as Linton booked our whale watching tour with the front office. We decided to do a half day trip on the newest and biggest boat in the Hervey Bay fleet - The Spirit of Hervey Bay. This trip would take us about 50kms out to sea and up the coast of the world famous Fraser Island which at 120kms long is the largest sand island in the world. We were after the Humpback whale which is "forced" into the area around Fraser Island in their annual migration north from the Antarctic to Indonesia.
But before the whale watching we decided to treat ourselves to our second non-camper dinner of the trip and settled on a funky place our Lonely Planet guide recommended called the Black Dog Cafe about ten minutes from our Caravan Park. On the way there we had a neat conversation with our cab driver who told us of his son who was a school teacher and a snowboarder working in Fernie BC who didn't seem to ever "want to come home". In this land of paradisical beaches that seemed hard to fathom and yet, for us skiers and Canadians we could understand the attraction. The dinner was a tonne of fun. Maybe it was the great food, or perhaps the Shrek and Simpsons figures by the kitchen, or maybe even the goofy presence of Owen Wilson in a signed photograph beside our table - whatever it was, we were all in a great mood as we walked the abandoned beach strip before hailing a cab home.
In the morning Linton showed me up in the extreme with an early morning run and then a walk on the beach with Colin. Allie and I chose to "lounge" about the camper if that's possible and I eventually made my way down to check out the beach with Colin after coffee. We had great fun "fossicking" in the tidal pools looking for starfish and hermit crabs with one wary eye on the lookout for swooping Magpies. An Ibis and an Osprey were our more friendly companions.
Our whaling adventure departed at 1:00pm from the main port which was at the opposite end to Hervey Bay from where we were and required a 20 minute shuttle bus ride. Once there we had more than an hour to kill so we wandered around the quaint harbour eventaully having a pre-trip beer and Calamari plate to toast the weather and the whales to come. In actual fact we were going to have to deal with some fairly rolly seas again so we all dutifully popped our motion sickness meds in the hope that time spent at the lee rail would be for the whale watching - only! Soon our ship was ready to board and we were off on a 50 minute cruise up the coast of Fraser Island and in search of humpbacks!
With vivid memories of a very cool and rough whale watching trip in Tofino that had little in the way of actual whales, we were keen to get close to a whale this time and after about one hour of searching we were handsomely rewarded. Eventually, we would follow two different mothers with their calves and the second pair was spectacular with many breaches, some fluking? and about 30 minutes of a show that would make Seaworld drool! This was followed up with some playful antics from another juvenile and we turned for home fully satisfied. A smooth return trip under a slowly setting sun made this day on the water forever memorable.
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