Super Sonic Whale Watching

Aram here, taking over the A^2 Down Under blog for a minute per Ann's request. I have been summoned to inform everyone on our whale watching adventure.  As am sure many of you are aware I have been on break for about a month. A bit much in my opinion, but the whole work/life balance is a pretty nice thing to have. At the beginning of this prolonged break we were looking for things to do and decided to go whale watching. Ann did a little research and found a well recommended service out of Manly, only a short ferry ride away from our place. We booked the tour and showed up on the day of the tour with recommended attire and soon found out why we wearing winter gear on an otherwise warm day. Our part tour guide/part extreme sports athlete showed up driving this:

I am pretty sure that these boats are meant for search and rescue missions but Blake (our tour guide) uses them for whale watching in the winter and 45 minute extreme boat tours in the summer. The thing was rocking 3 Yamaha 300s and we all straddling jet-ski like seats with support handle bars and were instructed to stand up if it got too bumpy. The dash of the boat had warned the driver that the vessel frequently got airborne and Blake let us know that it was windy day. A windy day ended meaning lots of airtime and the ride out was in my opinion the best part of the trip, twas thrilling.

After our thrill ride out to sea, Blake let us know that he was not only a skilled boat driver but also had a fair knowledge of hump back whales. As it turns out hump back whales were almost extinct in the 70s with only six to seven hundred left along the Australian coast but thanks to protections (thank you hippies) they are in the tens of thousands and their population grows by 10% each year. In fact scientist do not know the age limit of hump backs due to none dying of old age during the course of their study. Here are some images of the majestic creatures:

Well, I guess that is it for now, don't want to take up too much of your day.

Cheers,

Ann and Aram

PS Here are some shots from our thrill ride back to shore. The elderly lady next to us was confused as to why we were so closed to shore but we appreciated the ride, bravo Blake.