Australia is still reeling from the result of the EU referendum last week, and that is saying something because there is a General Election here on Saturday and it looks like being a very close run thing but still Brexit is stealing all the headlines. Voting is so complicated in Australia that there are infomercials on TV telling people how to fill in their ballot papers, no ticking just the one box here, there are many, many boxes which have to be numbered in order of preference.
Enough about the referendum, I can feel a rant coming on and this is not the place for it, and back to lighter issues. Zoe flew back to Newcastle with me from Melbourne for a few days holiday and managed to time her visit to coincide with a spell of wonderful weather. We had been lucky to dodge the rain the whole time in Melbourne but the sun really came out for us up here. It is the middle of winter at the moment but the days are generally sunny and temperatures hover around 20 degrees although it drops down to around 10 degrees at night, so we can be in t-shirts during the day and big sweaters in the evening. We make a fuss partly because we have acclimatised but also because the houses have no insulation or central heating and are built to get as much shade as possible. Winter only really lasts for about 8 weeks though and then it starts to warm up again.
It is the height of the whale migration at the moment and it is a bumper year. Since controls over whaling have been taking effect, the humpback population has increased each year and they are swimming past us in Port Stephens at the moment on their way to calve at the Great Barrier Reef. So we set off to Nelson Bay to hop on the Imagine Cruises catamaran for a whale watch cruise. In Nelson Bay they are marking the whale season with an exhibition of decorated whale tails around the marina (a bit like the painted elephants in London a few years ago). Each whale tail has a board beside it featuring a Whale Tale, stories about ships and their encounters with whales in the area over the years.
It was a beautiful still, sunny day and the bay was like a mill pond, the sea beyond the heads looked very calm too, so good news for whale watching. As the catamaran pulled into dock and the morning cruise passengers disembarked we heard the captain saying, 'that was the most whales we have ever seen on one trip!' We got on board with high hopes and the captain said, 'Hello everyone, it's like whale soup out there at the moment.'
Usually it takes a time for the crew to spot the first whale, they are in radio contact with the other two whale watch boats operating in the area and they let each other know when they have a sighting. No need this time, as soon as we were out of the heads they pointed out a group of three whales playing around and seemingly in no hurry to press on with the thousands of kilometres they need to travel. They treated us to a display of spy hopping (sticking their heads out of the water and looking around), tail waving, fin flapping, one even seemed to pop his head up and smile at us then, because the water was calm and quiet, the crew dropped a sound detector into the water and WE HEARD THEM! We couldn't believe our luck, last year when Ian and I went we saw a couple of whale's backs and thought we had a brilliant time but it was nothing like this.
Next the captain said he was taking us to where he thought he could catch some whales jumping out of the water because they tend to do it at 4 o'clock (?) I had heard that the experts do not even really know why they jump but goodness only knows how they can tell it is 4 o'clock. Anyway, he steered the catamaran to the likely spot and, yes you have guessed it, one jumped right beside us. Needless to say I didn't catch it with my camera, just a bit of a splash at the end so you will have to take my word for it.