A whale of a time - Broome

One of the must-do's when in Australia is whale watching of course! Australia is surrounded by different species and populations of whales. We've seen the Eastern humpbacks off the coast of Fraser Island and Byron Bay. Because we wanted to get closer we booked a whale watch cruise from Huskisson on the east coast, but unfortunately we didn't see any! Because sightings are guaranteed, we took the same boat the day after, but had no better luck hat day. We could've continued to go on, but since it was cold and wet on both days, we decided to call it quits. We had missed the peak of this migration: the whales were travelling north and we were going south. Looking back we probably should've taken a cruise from Sydney.

The biologist's intro talk

But when we got to Broome and looked at the brochures at the tourist office, they had many whale watching cruises. We were a bit surprised, since we hadn't read about it in our Lonely Planet (aka 'the Book of Lies'). The lady at the counter raved about how many whales were out there, and that it was really at the peak of the season here. Since we didn't want to miss out on them again we decided to book a whale watch sunset cruise, though it was a bit more expensive then we'd hoped. 

Just saw a blower!

The next day a courtesy bus picks us up at the campsite at 2pm, arriving at the beach just before 3.
Staring over the ocean we see the first whale blowers  in the distance, that looks promising! From the beach today a funny little amphibious thing shuttled us to the boat, and while we set off in search of whales, the on board marine biologist gives us a short introduction on the humpbacks. Right now were expected to see mostly pairs of mothers with a calf. The males have already started their migration south. We spot our first whales 10minutes out! Indeed a mother with calf. So cool.

First sighting, so cool

We stay next to them for a while, but since an other whale watch vessel is also watching this pair, our skipper decides to head to the next whales. We have a spotter on the roof, and he sees breaches and blowers at different locations. The next two hours we see some 5 pairs of whales, though most are camera shy, and mostly stay under while we are near.

Getting our info talks at the front deck

While not spotting, we enjoy the sun at the front deck. Free soft drinks and nibbles are included: a huge improvement from our previous whale watching effort. The biologist goes back and forth between the parties on the front and rear, and tells us all about the humpbacks.

Nibbles being served 

Once we're heading back, we spend the final 30minutes on the rear deck enjoying the gorgeous sunset. And nibbles. This is where the budget travellers stand out: those huddled around the free nibbles, not buying alcohol! It is strange though, that is even though the boat has a fully licenced bar (another job of the biologist) it also is BYO. They even have a Esky just for the BYO. 

And then, suddenly we get called to the front deck: a mommy is showing of and does two massive breaches, just next to the boat! Whoa!

That was the cherry on the cake.