We Saw Some Whales - Part 1

We were listening to the radio one morning and heard that there are heaps and heaps of whales migrating up the east coast of Australia at the moment.  Probably the most in many, many years.  I’ve always wanted to see some whales, so we decided that, weather permitting, we would go to Port Stephen’s for a few days and try to go out on a whale watching cruise and see some up close.

We left home in this weather on a Monday in the middle of June.  Brrrr!

Firstly we had to travel through Sydney, something we haven’t done with the van before.  Last time we went that way, in 2017, it was a nightmare of traffic lights and heavy traffic.  Since then, the new 9km long “Northconnex” tunnel has been completed. What a game changer.

We both always feel we are on a coastal holiday when we cross the Hexham Bridge.

And this is where we were in the afternoon.  Aaah!  That’s better.

This was our home away from home for four nights.  Mick and I used to come here , staying in the same caravan park, for the first week of February each year for several years.  We worked out that the last time we visited was 29 years ago!!! Where did that time go?  It has all changed quite a bit since then.

It’s so nice to see the sun set over the water.

We had booked our whale watching cruise for the Tuesday, but the weather forecast was for rather windy conditions.  I’m a terrible sailor, so we changed our cruise to the Wednesday. In the meantime, we would have a day travelling around the  area and visiting headlands where you can go whale watching from the shore.  We had a fantastic day.

As it turned out, all cruises for the Tuesday were cancelled due to the gale force winds.

To put things in perspective, here is a little map showing the whole of Port Stephens.  It is quite a large area.

This is more detailed of where we travelled around on our expedition.  Our caravan park was below the point between Nelson Bay and Shoal Bay.

The first spot we visited was Barry Park at Fingal Bay,  Such a beautiful spot.  Yes, it was windy, but just look at that blue sky.

We didn’t see any whales up close, but there were several out to sea.  There were lots of sprays where they were blowing.

We continued travelling around the coast and visited another spot, called Boat Harbour.  The headland was quite popular.

Mick had his longish lens on his camera and luckily captured one breaching.  This is the only one we saw breach in the entire time.  He did so well to catch it on his camera.

Even without the whales, it was fun seeing the wild seas. 

The whitecaps did make it rather hard to pick out the whales.

There were some lovely banksias by the path.

Our next stop was Birubi Beach.  This is at the very top of the Stockton Beach and sand dunes.  Stockton beach is the longest in New South Wales, at 32kms long.  It runs from here to Stockton (funnily enough), just north of Newcastle.

It was lunch time, so we treated ourselves to a delicious meal in the cafe, while still looking for whales on the horizon through the windows.

All that fresh air builds up an appetite, so we indulged in sharing some dessert as well.  Mmmmmm!

Meanwhile, out on the beach, there was a string of camels.

Being windy, the sand was whipping up on the dunes.  Apparently, they are the largest shifting dunes in the southern hemisphere and are often used for film settings.

There was also a man down on the beach attempting to parasail.

After lunch we visited the little town of Anna Bay and popped into Vinnies.  That is where I bought my big ball of yarn, as well as some flannel to back some donation quilts.  While we were chatting to the ladies working there, one of them announced that she was sure we had met while travelling in WA last year.  We worked out that we had met them twice, once at 80 Mile Beach and again at Tom Price.  They had the same brand of van as us and Mick had carried out some running repairs on their van.  It’s a small world.

This mural was on the side of the Vinnies building.  There are lots of koalas in the Port Stephens area and you see many signs beside the road to be careful of them and where to report any injuries.

All the areas we had visited so far were on the ocean side of Port Stephen’s.  In the afternoon we ventured to the port side, if that makes sense.

Soldiers Point is at the top of a peninsula and there was a marina with lots of boats.

The clouds were so pretty.

The next little spot we visited was Dutchman’s Bay.  We rented a holiday home here when I was about six.  It is a lovely, quiet small beach, with more banksias putting on quite a show.

That was about enough exploring for one day.

The next day was forecast to be windy as well, so we once again postponed our cruise out to see the whales.

We decided to have a day exploring Nelson Bay township on foot.

My family had a few holidays at Nelson Bay when I was little.  My brother actually took his first steps there.  We used to stay in a holiday house overlooking the bay, just across the road from the beach.  It was knocked down in the 1970s and replaced by this sloping apartment block.

This is the view we used to see.  I slept in a closed in verandah at the front and I loved watching the fishing fleet return in the early morning.  There has not bee a fishing fleet for many years now.

Nelson Bay has a marina complete with lots of rather flash boats.

There is a section where they feed the fish each day.  Wow!  So many fish and some were quite sizeable.  Obviously, you weren’t allowed to fish there.  The water was so very clear. It was rather mesmerising just watching them in the sunlit water.

The town itself was surprisingly quiet.  That would change the following week, once school holidays stared.  

There were some nice wall murals.  These were down an alley and painted in 2019.

These were down another alley showing scenes from the dunes, landscape and sea.  It was a pity about the reflections in the photos.

In the afternoon, we headed out to the whale watching sites again and continued to see lots swimming past.  A couple were fairly close to the shore.  You can see one blowing, just above the red life preserver.  You can also see just a little bit of its back.  They are humpback whales.

On our way back to the van we went up to the Gan Gan Hill lookout.  We hadn’t been here before, and when we read that it only opened in 1997, we understood why.  We hadn’t been here since 1995.

We’d seen quite a few of these plants and wondered if they were a native or introduced. It turns out they are a native Gymea Lily, which live around the Sydney Basin and surrounding areas.

Rather impressive, aren’t they.

There was also a huge communications tower at the top of the hill.

Now, for the view.  Rather stunning, isn’t it. You could see a full 180 degrees.  See that tiny smoke haze to the right of the photo?

It intensified while we were up there.  We started to hear sirens.  It turns out that a house a the bottom of hill was on fire and completely destroyed.  So sad.

Aren’t these little fellows cute.

Back at the van, it was time to sit in the not so warm sun and work on some crochet.  I had to manage my 15 minutes of crafting each day.

That’s about enough for this post.  You’ll be going to sleep.  I’ll share the rest next time.