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Whale watching in Port Douglas.... for free :-)

Port Stephens Travel Blog › entry 3 of 3 › view all entries

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Whale watching in Port Douglas.... for free :-)

September 20, 2009

Sunday morning I woke up at the ungodly hour of six thirty with the very strange sensations of a clear head and breath that didn’t smell of kebab or mince pie. Vicki gave me a call to check that I was up only to tell me that she didn’t think she could go because the ferry timetable was all wrong thanks to the run that was taking place in the city ��" but thankfully a helpful Serbian taxi driver got her to the YHA pick up on time.

We meet our tour guide Bob ��" a very helpful and likeable chap from Manly ��" and set off with only seven of the fourteen passengers booked on the trip heading up to Port Stephens in the search of some whales.

Before we got to Port Stephens we stopped off for a brief camel ride ��" as you do ��" along the beach.

I was hoping for a free reign to tramp up the sand dunes ala Lawrence of Arabia style but it wasn’t to been as we were lead around like some school children. Me and Vicki took delight in shouting abuse at each other on top of our humped back friends before we set off to catch the boat at Port Stephens.

We set off at just after lunch ��" that consisting of a fine feed of fish and chips and a burger that would put a Big Mac to shame. Our first sighting of anything of interest on board our catamaran sale boat came in the form of some friendly dolphins, which seemed to be having a competition on who would get closest to the front of the boat and jump up out of the water. It was pretty cool to see them up close and you couldn’t help but notice how fast and graceful they were in the water.

The dolphins lost interest after ten minutes and headed on their merry way.

We spent the next hour or so keeping an eye on the horizon looking out for any signs of whales. We didn’t see anything for ages and just as me and Vicki had given up hope of seeing some we spotted them a few hundred meters ahead.

After circling them for fifteen minutes the captain shut off the engine and everyone looked around for any signs of them. I was looking down just below the boat in time to see one of the massive hump back whales come up right in front of us. It was a pretty awesome sight and they seemed very interested in what we were doing coming right up beside the boat for a look. Needless to say we spent the next ten or so minutes running from one side of the boat to the other as the humpbacks played up to the camera.

After a while we headed back to port just as the sun was setting and managed to get in a few funny photos with the nets at the front of the boat.

We then hopped back on the bus and were back in the city in less than three hours. All in all it was a fantastic day trip, well organised and ran by Colourful trips.

I cant let Vicki away without giving her a bit of a slagging about leaving her purse on the bus when the guy gave the old ‘someone always leaves something behind speech’ so make sure its not you. But wouldn’t you know it, Vicki’s purse didn’t get off on our stop and continued its wee adventure. Hope its made its way back to its rightful owner J