Blue Bay Whale Watching Byron Bay

I can’t believe this day. It was too good! I’m really glad mom got to experience this during her limited time in Australia. We will probably have another good whale watching one day, but it definitely will be hard to top getting mugged by seven whales and seeing countless of breaches. While the sun was out the full time, without scorching us. One of the best days ever I would dare say.

As we had such an amazing time exactly a year ago, there was no question about it, we wanted to go with Blue Bay Whale Watching Byron Bay again. Small boat with only 10 passengers at a time, nice crew, whale spotters from high ground telling where the action is, very mindful of the whales, and they seem to attract good passengers. Highly recommend!

Continue reading →

One night of planned camping spontaneously turned into two nights because we were too spontaneous and didn’t look up availability for the whale watching we wanted to do. All good though, we got a really good weekend out of it down in Byron Bay. It can be divided into four parts and there will be an equal amount of posts because one will be way too long:

The highlight of this weekend was for sure the whale watching.

We went with Blue Bay Divers and were so happy that we did. They start from Brunswick Harbour, have a small but dry boat and the guys going with us were both friendly and informative. $119 for a 3 hour tour.

It was a very calm day out on the water and we actually only saw a few breaching whales. They all seemed to be on a mission to go somewhere. They had a whale spotter on shore up high and they called the boat every now and then when they saw activity. The first couple of whales we saw were close to shore, hoping for a mother and calf, but they were both adult.

Next, they had spotted a group of active whales way out, so we rode straight out for about 10 minutes where we found a large pod of whales and more kept adding to it. They were going straight north with us along its side for a good 45 min. The guys estimated them to be 12 at most. They did nothing more spectacular than just being the huge beings they are but that is more than enough. It is so incredible how big and gentle this giants are. And these were only humpback whales, not even the biggest type of whale there is. A blue whale is twice as big and up to four times as heavy!

Our boat always kept a good distance to the pods which felt really good.

I was the dedicated photographer on this trip. Mikael filmed. His plan is to make a video of it all and post it on your new Youtube-channel within short. It was a cloudy day, but it was perfect for whale watching. Not as much reflections on the ocean. This one was flapping its flipper on the surface for so long. I wonder why.

Then we found a smaller pod of 4 whales who were super curious about our boat and swam around and under it several times. It is hard to believe how big they truly are! And it is amazing that we live on this planet alongside them and all other living animals. And devastating how we are destroying it…

I am so glad I got this smaller breach on camera. WOW! This one was so close!

And lastly, some of the photos from the guys of Blue Bay Divers. He looked so casual but still managed to get the one big breach we saw. I guess when you do this every day for the whole winter season, you get good at it. Such a wonderful day!