Monday, August 17, 2009

Whale Watching

Last Tuesday we headed off from Ceduna to the Head of the Bight to see the whales. It was 300 km there and 300 km back so we were hoping for some amazing sights and we were not disappointed.

At the “Head of Bight” as it is known, the deep water comes right in to the cliff face and this is where the southern right whales come every year from May till August to calve. We saw at least forty whales, many with their small (compared to their mothers) babies. They were so close in to shore and the wooden boardwalk allowed us such a great view, we stood there and just marvelled.

Some of the whales had barnacles on their bodies which we could clearly see from where we were standing. The babies clung closely to their mothers. They stay in the area for several months and after calving, they stay very close to the cliffs.

The whale watching area is in Yalata Aboriginal land and we had reached the Nullarbor Plain before we turned down to the Bunda Cliffs to do our whale watching. It was a marvellous experience.

2 comments:

Amanda said...

Fantastic!
There's nothing quite like watching a whale breach out of the water up close, is there. And the calves - wowee!

Miss Di said...

Wow, and I thought we saw them close at Forster!!