Meanwhile we've spent the past two weeks travelling up to Ella's parents' place in Bundaberg, spending a week here - and having fun along the way in Canberra, Sydney and Landsborough.
It occurred to me that the last week or so has been dominated by unusual and interesting wildlife, so here are a few of the photos.
When we arrived in Bundaberg Helen told us the story of the injured sugar glider that Jacques (with the help of Fred the dog) found on their property.
It was taken to a nearby animal carer to be looked after, but sadly it didn't make it. On a more positive note however, the carer discovered it had a tiny offspring attached ... and this has been nurtured. It's grown from 3.5 grammes to 6 grammes and we went to see it last week. Photos courtesy of Jacques. What a cutey! (the sugar glider I mean, not Jacques!)
Back in the Rohen's garden there are three Tawny Frogmouthed owls that live in a tree near the house. They're incredibly well camouflaged - if they hadn't been pointed out to me I don't think i'd have spotted them. Obviously they're asleep in these daytime photos.
On Sunday we took a trip with some of the Rohen's family friends aboard their boat, the Black Pearl. We hadn't been given the details of the boat, so when we arrived at 7am I suppose we were a bit surprised at the size and luxury nature of the eight berth beast! John piloted us three hours south along the coast to Hervey Bay (named for one of Captain Cook's colleagues).
Why did we go there? Well, at this time of the year it's the best place in the world to catch sight of Humpback Whales. They come north from Antarctica to this area in June to calve in warmer water and they can be seen until November.
The first 'spot' however had us flummoxed for a while. It turned out to be a Turtle ... but it didn't look very well. It was swimming very slowly and Jacques thinks it might have been damaged by a boat's prop.
Then we caught sight of some fins! According to those who had been before often the Whales will come and play alongside the boats. Not these guys, though, and there's a strict code about not approaching too close.
After floating around for a while we headed for the beach instead and Ella and I had a swim. (It was too cold for all the Queenslanders though).
Then on the way back we saw loads of Dolphins - then finally a Whale who appeared to be playing with her calf - slapping the water's surface with a huge fin, which was followed by a much smaller fin from the calf. We even saw, from a distance, leap completely out of the water! Stunning, but I didn't have my camera out ... you'll have to settle for some fin slapping.
After that it was another 2-3 hours back and we made it just as the sun set. A beautiful day indeed.
1 comment:
Now, you're going to have to give us a bit more info about your little Walkabout.... aren't you?
It's funny, you know, I was just writing about The Fins and then I see they've got some good press in your Australian blog. Good stuff.
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