Tangalooma Whaling

It was such an early start this morning. I was in the shower by five thirty! With so many morning chores to be done before heading off to join our tour bus I had to start early! We were on the road by seven and after picking up a few other passengers along the way found ourselves at the wharf right on time for our ten o clock departure.
I had no idea how long it took to reach Tangalooma – the name of the resort on Morton Island, to which we were going but it took forever just to get to the mouth of the Brisbane River! We slowed down as we passed every moored ship – many of them! I guess that is so that the wake caused by our vessel did not throw them around as they were being unloaded. It actually took an hour and a quarter.

Our fast cat ferry (the one in the background!)

There was time to take a few photos from the jetty when we arrived before we all climbed back on board so we could go out into the ocean on a whale watching trip. The best part of that was the cup of coffee on board! We saw one whale breach (which was wonderful) but the rest of the time we saw water and felt the huge swell toss us around. I was happy when we pulled up and we were on solid ground again!

We were taken on a walking tour of the resort, which is huge and fantastic (and many more superlatives) but when I pointed out that one of the members of the party had major mobility problems (bad knees) we were all treated to a buggy ride for the rest of the resort travel.

Our rooms are quite luxuriant and after enjoying a welcome cup of tea and a muffin (from home!) I left with my camera to take a walk and some photos – I found a collection of curlews and had fun chasing them with the camera and then swung my attention to the sinking sun. I had picked a location earlier that would be good if there was a sunset so that is where I aimed to return to. It was perfect!

At six in the evening the lights on the jetty are turned on and in come the bottle nosed dolphins to be hand fed. We had to listen to a “Japanese Marine Biologist” for what seemed to be an overly long period of time as she explained about the rules of feeding and touching and the ages of the dolphins – all we were all interested in was SEEING them! But we were rewarded. Six dolphins came in and played below us in the water and four of them came in to be hand fed. Amanda, Steven’s girlfriend, braved the cold water and had the thrill of her life! She tried to hang onto her fish so the dolphin would stay longer!

Our day was completed with the most enormous and delicious five course meal that I could not complete! What a treat we have had today! I finished up by going around our table and taking photos of each of the couples, we have already become good friends! Yes, Colin and I had our photos taken (with my camera) too.

Another busy day tomorrow? You betcha!

AJ