Our Whale Of A Tale

“Heeeeeeelloooooooooooowhaaaaaaaaaaaales,” the kids and I were yelling as we stood at Captain Cook Lookout, atop the township of Copacabana. This place had been suggested to us by another guest Tracey was chatting to at the Ocean Beach Holiday Park.  This is one of the thrills of doing a big lap and homeschooling as we travel – educating the kids on this great big wonderful planet.

The sea was a bit choppy and I suspected we weren’t going to have any luck, but almost immediately a helpful couple who’d been standing there when we arrived pointed.

“A whale!” all the kids yelled.

Well, all except for one little girl who cupped my ear and asked me a question.

“What’s it called?” Miss7 wanted to know.

“A humpback whale,” I told her as we all oohed and aahed at a huge beastie breaking the surface.

I confess, I was a little surprised by the question because the car trip to get here was full of colouring-in humpback drawings and looking at information which Tracey had printed out last night, and I’d been prattling on about why I think whales are so fascinating – they remind me of Tracey. They fully evolved to be a land animals, looked around one day and collectively thought ‘I’ve changed my mind’ and then went back to the water and evolved anew to be once again perfectly at home in the oceans. Tracey’s been known to change her mind pretty epically as well.

Whales, to me, are one of evolutions great triumphs.

“I mean what’s its name?” pressed Miss7.

“Oh,” I stammered, changing mental tact. “Jerry?”

“Looks more like a Bruce,” said Tracey.

“And that one?” Miss7 asked, both of us ignoring her mother. She pointed at another whale which had come to the surface behind the first and had been eliciting a fresh round of squeals from our family. I resisted the urge to say Tracey because I’m a nicer person. And Tracey is a higher Tae Kwon Do belt.

“Sam,” I said instead.

She looked so disappointed in my answer I wondered if I’d misunderstood the question a second time. I asked what the problem was.

“Is there one called Marcella?” she asked. Marcella is one of her friends from school.

“Of course, there is,” I exclaimed, pointing at a third humongous creature a fair bit back from the other two. “That one!”

“Hi, Marcella!” Miss7 called out happily. “Now where’s Chelsea and Karamea?”

As Tracey would affirm, I’m not great at picking up on clues – I’ve evolved into something of a Homer Simpson – but I think we might be heading back towards our home town of Gympie at just the right time. I suspect someone needs to catch up with her friends.

Meanwhile, we ended up on a first name basis with lots of big, fat fish. I wasn’t counting but we probably saw a dozen or so humpback whales swim by, although I daresay we missed a lot more than that. All this for free and without the risk of sea sickness.

And that’s another very satisfying tick in a box on my big lap to-do checklist. That we got to do it for free was just a bit wonderful too.

“Thaaaaaaaankyoooooouuuuuu!” we called out as we left. “SaaaaaayheeeeellooooooootoDooooooorrrrryy!”

As I’d explained to the kids as we drove out there, “I’ve always wanted to see whales in the wild.” “Yeah,” said Master12 from the back seat. “This is much better than seeing them in a zoo.” A humpback whale in a zoo? Not sure he understands just how big they are.

Me, showing Miss7 how to use pretend binoculars. Imagine my surprise when I put my hands up to my eyes and there was a whale in my sights.
A homeschooling board
And again
This is the couple who helped us spot our first whales and were a wealth of knowledge in much the same way I’m generally not

On the way to the whales we also managed to catch the daily 3pm pelican feeding at Woy Woy Fishermans Wharf.  

Got some shots of Tracey and her workhorse Canon. That lens always makes me feel inferior. Meanwhile, check out the silly people on the other side of Tracey looking up a tree. They’re doing it wrong.

 

 

It really was amusing to watch them arrange a fish in their mouth before swallowing, and then to see it protrude out their neck as it went down.
Had our own bird feeding back at camp. Ducks, scrub turkeys and….
…rainbow lorikeets.

The downside of feeding the birds around our bus. Most worrying was when I walked out ten minutes later and it wasn’t there. So now I’m worrying if the someone who stepped in it was walking in or out of the bus.

More homeschooling back at our campsite before heading to the beach for some fun
Beach is about a minute from our bus steps.

Good news this week – our fridge broke. We couldn’t open the door. I eventually fixed it with duck tape. But even better, I had to buy some tools!
I mean, I had the tape…obviously. But I needed some undoing things that weren’t phillips heads or screwdriver. You may have caught that I don’t know what it is I bought. They’re in that black box with the yellowness in it. Funny shaped things. Sort of 2D exploding star shaped. Rather sensibly, I used a photo at Bunnings. 

Recent Selfies With Members Of Our Extended Tribe

Raising a family on little more than laughs

This post is not sponsored at all. Dammit.

1 Comment

  • Love the central coast! Love the whales!
    LOVE the fact you guys are heading this way! Love, love, love, how happy that makes Coop!
    See ya all soon! ?

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.