Whale watching

On Thursday (October 2nd) we went whale watching on 'Steve's Whale One'. The boat was named by the two Irwin kids Bindi and Robert, Bindi wanted Whale One, and Robert wanted to call it Steve, so they compromised! The whale watching season runs from June to late October. The first part of the season is when the whales are migrating from the Antarctic up to the tropical waters of northern Australia so that they can give birth. Once the calves are strong enough to swim, they make they 5000km plus trip back down the coast.
Our departure time was supposed to be 10AM but we didn't end up leaving until around 10:30. The weather that day was perfect. There was a very light breeze, very few clouds, and 'calm' seas (there were still 6-8ft swells) which made the trip out there fun since we decided to sit right at the very front of the boat! Once we got out about 6km we saw our first couple of whales, they weren't too exciting, just coming up for air then diving back down for 5-10 minutes then coming back up for air again. The captain decided that we should try and search for some more whales that may be more active, like breaching (which is when they jump out of the water). So we travelled another few Kilometers up the coast and found another pod that was a bit more active and staying at the surface more often so we could get a better view of them.
We spent 20 minutes or so following this pod until the captain saw a whale breach about a kilometer in front of us, so we were full speed ahead trying to find that pod! This pod was a mother, a calf, and an escort whale (a male, probably not the proud papa of the calf because they don't stick around). On our way to find this pod out of no where were 5 or 6 Dolphins that were swimming along side of the boat, then they started riding along on the bow just like you see in the movies! it was amazing. These dolphins joined up with the pod of whales that we were tracking down and it looked like the dolphins where playing with the calf. At one point a Dolphin jumped out of the water right over both the mother and calf! When the whales dive down you have no idea where they are going to come up next, we were just floating along and all of the sudden the whales surfaced about 20ft from the front of the boat, of course nobody had their cameras ready because it was so unexpected, and we were in shock that they were so close you almost forget to take a picture, these animals are just massive, yet so majestic.
It was such a cool experience just watching these huge Humpback whales in their environment. After all that excitement we had some lunch, a buffet of cold cut meats, chicken and salads it was already 1:30 and it was time to head back :(
On the way back to the Wharf (and out to the ocean) we travel along the Mooloolaba river. The river is home to some beautiful houses, a few marinas, and the fishery. The main fishing industry out of Mooloolaba is Prawn, and Tuna, they catch almost everything else but those are the two biggest.
Well enjoy the pictures, and even a short video clip! This was definitely an experience of a lifetime, and one that we will never forget....that seems to be an ongoing theme!!

The captain just relaxing before departure!

Dolphin! and look at the colour of that water!

Whales swimming with the Dolphins, or the other way around if you wish!

The baby whale and mother (if you can see the shadow just under the surface) about 15ft from us!

some shots of the coast, you can kind of see that most of the coast looks like one loooong beach...that is because it is!!

Our beach! Mooloolaba.

Lots of Prawn fishing boats

Neil's favourite house on the river that we saw

And right next door, Melis' favourite house!!

The Wharf

I really hope that this video works, if it doesn't please let us know and we can find another way of posting it....its worth it!! It starts loud so make sure your volume is down!