Hervey Bay

Hope you have had chance to locate Hervey Bay in Australia on the Atlas – if not I have attached a ‘j peg’ in the blog photo gallery.
As you know we arrived in Hervey Bay on Monday afternoon. We are staying at a place called ‘Mantra’ - which is a fantastic place right on the harbour front at Urangan (one end of Hervey Bay). We didn’t use Clark’s mates’ rates for this one – we used a really competitive website called wotif.com, which Murray put us onto! You can probably guess that I am going to wax lyrical about the standard of accommodation and the value for money!
Suffice it to say, just use all the superlatives I have used about our previous accommodation and add to them the fact that it is the cheapest hotel we have stayed at all holiday – and I’ll let you visualise & describe it yourself! However please note that our room consists of: one bedroom (king sized bed as per usual), huge Jacuzzi bath and a kitchen, laundry room, lounge with large TV plus a balcony overlooking the harbour and the Coral Sea beyond - all for the same price as a travel lodge on the M1!!
Hervey Bay is a peaceful and picturesque seaside city that has attracted holiday makers for over a century. It has plenty to offer for just about everyone, on the water and on the land. It is best known as the Whale Watch Capital and the home of the World Heritage listed Fraser Island.
This haven, which began as a number of seaside villages, boasts kilometres of beaches and offers a vast range of tourist attractions and activities for all ages. Hervey Bay's climate and idyllic waterways have led to an abundance of water sports activity in the area. A broad nature strip with a bike path meandering among the trees traces the entire stretch of sandy beach from the Urangan Pier (where we are staying in the Mantra), to the last of the grand old beach houses at Point Vernon.
The beaches are ideal for all ages and swimming, sailing, fishing, diving, sea kayaking and skiing are all readily available. As well as an abundance of water based activities, the area also has art galleries, theatres, a very broad range of eateries, botanic gardens, historical townships and of course - whale watch cruises!
With magnificent views, natural attractions and a wide choice of accommodation - Hervey Bay really has something for everyone. You can do as little or as much as you like in this relaxing coastal city – but you don’t come on holiday to do ‘little’ do you?
After our brief look around when we arrived on Monday, we explored Hervey Bay further on Tuesday morning in the new AVIS ‘racing’ hire car! This one is a Mitsubishi 380 SX automatic saloon; with a Jap side valve inverted double cam shaft and turbo charger! After screeching up the esplanade, whilst looking at all of the 5 beaches that make up the Bay, we plumped for Shelley Beach; which is right next door to Torquay beach!
We sat on the beach and read our books – it was unreal because we were the only ones on the 3 mile long stretch! Apparently the locals thought it was too cool and windy to be on the beach! It was actually 28C with what we would call a nice cool breeze – just like St Bees! I even managed a full 3 second swim in the sea – which was brave because I was on my own in the water as far as the eye could see! Caz had left her shark watching kit at the apartment – otherwise I would have swum for at least 10 seconds!
For the ‘twitchers’ amongst you (Papa T – you’ll love this one) - we watched a sea eagle swooping about over the sea, periodically dive bombing its prey!
A lazy day but a nice change and also good to get our bearings in the Hervey Bay area. We were very impressed with the whole set up and it was just as I described earlier i.e. something for everyone - irrespective of age or interest.
However as you have probably guessed our main reason for coming to this area was the whale watching. In preparation for our trip Caz had continued to interrogate each of the captains of the various vessels in the Harbour, who were offering whale watching tours. Eventually she selected the Spirit of Hervey Bay – a 24 metre Catamaran (painted a very distinctive bright yellow) - now as you would expect knowing Caz, apart from the colour, this was no ordinary vessel!
It was only 12 months old, had 5 levels of viewing platforms, underwater viewing windows in the hull, live video cams and a sound system where you could listen to the whales! Spookily the captain did look like Gregory Peck, the second mate like Brad Pitt and the boson like Thierry Henri. Unfortunately for me the only female member of staff i.e. the purser was Bella Emberg’s double!

So on Wednesday we set off on our voyage to see the whales heading towards Fraser Island at a fair rate of knots, eventually we settled in Platypus Bay (in the Coral Sea). Apparently this is the best time of year to watch the hump back whales, because they stop off on their migration south to rest, scrape barnacles off their backs and do some mating (I am very jealous because the flight down under for me to do just about the same was very expensive)!

The sea was very choppy and the weather was quite cool (only 26C) and the wind was quite high. En route to Platypus Bay we saw a couple of turtles and some whales a few hundred metres away, but the crew hardly flinched and were very casual about the sightings – unlike Caz who was pointing and shreaking like a woman possessed ; ‘whales a starboard’ – ‘turtles ahead’ – ‘dolphin on the horizon’!
After not too long the crew realised that Caz was just very excited and actually meant no harm – even though she had knocked a couple of small children overboard who happened to be walking past when she had spotted a whale! After about an hour or so sailing we were right amongst the whales - several pods of the 'big fellas'!!
I kid you not, when I say right amongst them, I mean right amongst them! They swam right up to the boat and breached, tail slapped and basically just ‘fooled’ around and showed off to all of us on the boat doing a variety of moves in the water!

I have attached some photos in the blog gallery but they don’t really depict the size of the whales and the speed at which they moved; but don’t worry I have 4 hours of video footage to show you when we get home! We had a bonus because we enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the way home as we sailed into the harbour - not sure if my Kodak 3 mega pixel shot does it justice but I have attached it anyway!

We have done a bit of a Geography lesson and so now for a bit of Marine Biology:

The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a Baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from 12–16 metres (39–52 ft) and weigh approximately 36,000 kilograms (marginally heavier than Jess Tonge at his peak).

The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head (once again not dissimilar to Jess after a game of rugby). It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping the water 9the antithesis of Jess). Males produce a complex whale song, which lasts for 10 to 20 minutes and is repeated for hours at a time (back to Jess again). The purpose of the song is not yet clear; although it appears to have a role in mating (Mrs Tonge will confirm that this is true - usually after a few pints of bitter at the rugby club)!

Humpback whales typically migrate up to 25,000 kilometres each year. Humpbacks feed only in summer, in polar waters, and migrate to tropical or sub-tropical waters to breed and give birth in the winter. During the winter, humpbacks fast and live off their fat reserves. The species' diet consists mostly of krill and small fish. Humpbacks have a diverse repertoire of feeding methods, including the bubble net feeding technique (jess just goes to the Far Pavillion for an indian take away)!

So now you know all about hump back whales and a bit about Jess Tonge (ex prop forward for Bolton RUFC & the biggest and heaviest man I have ever played rugby with)!

So where to next in Hervey Bay? Well wait for it – another ‘day off’ tomorrow i.e. just doing wheel spins and hand break turns along the esplanade before reading on the beach! However we are not that idle because on Friday at the crack of dawn we are off to one of John & Genna’s favourite places – Fraser Island!