OH MY GOODNESS PASTERINOS!!!

WHALES. I REPEAT, WHALES.

Animal count for this blog:

1. 8x Southern Right Whales
2. 1x bandicoot
3. 2x hairy nose wombats
4. 1x betting
5. 6x pademelons
6. 3x flying fox
7. 2x possum
8. 3x python
9. 4x wallabies
10. 4x curlew
11. 1x tawny frog mouth
12. 2x blue tongue
13. 9x kangaroos
14. 8x Southern Right (I’m not sure I’ve mentioned this yet🤣) Whales

Jon and I booked onto a whale watching cruise in Albany. Everyone said if you’ve never done it, to do it. And boy were we glad we did!

We asked around some locals if they preferred one or the other and we got the impression that the big motored boat was the best. It can get to places quicker, go our further and if you don’t see a whale then you can go on again for free.

We had to go about 45 minutes out before we spotted some whales and we were so so lucky. There was 5 Southern Right whales all frolicking away together. They came right up to the boat, swam under us and puffed out their blowholes at each other. Each one the size of a bus, the tour guides telling us that babies are born at 2 Tonne and put on 80kilos a day for the first year. No matter how relative it is – lets all take a moment to feel some sympathy for those mama whales out there! Some made some great whale noises – the tour guides saying it was the boys trying to impress the girl. One whale went over backwards and we got to see him with his mouth open, and his tongue out. The tour guides were kicking themselves they didn’t have their cameras ready because apparently that’s a pretty rare sight.

On our way back to shore, we bumped into another three Southern Rights and even a seal, again a rare sight but a cute one!We filled the rest of the day by going back up to the whale museum where they have a native animal sanctuary and botanical gardens. Unfortunately their beloved koala he recently passed away but we saw many of his beautiful friends! Theyve got a whole pod of white kangaroos there, which are absolutely gorgeous! I. think if we were a few weeks later into spring, the botanical gardens would have been absolutely stunnin. They were still very pretty but everything is just waiting to burst into the wildflowers this region is known for. I took some photos of some of the earliest blooms that are there, but there isn’t much flowering just yet.

We stopped into Limeburners distillery for Jon to taste a few of their whiskies. They’ve got a few international award winners in their line, though all very peaty. It was nice to just sit and relax with whisky in the middle of the day! Our tasting guide was super knowledgeable and was very entertaining too which was a bonus!

We got back on the road, heading to Esperance. We did a detour to go and see Bremer Bay on the way – quite a bit of a detour but I needed some sand and I wanted to show Jon something that I considered a chilldhood memory. I can remember mum and dad driving onto a beach – Im sure there are photos of me wearing my black swimming rashie outfit with the pink ruffles on the bum running around eating youghurt. I have no idea if this memory is of Bemer Bay or not but it seemed close enough! Either way. We got the sand (I’m collecting sand from our trip across the country to make into something at the end) and Jon drove for a chunck to let me relax and take some pictures while we were driving.

We’ve settled in Esperance and well be here for about 4 days exploring the beaches.

Byeeee pasterinos!