Hervey Bay, Australia whale watching trip. The Indigenous name of the area (Frazer Island) is K’gari, which I’ll be referring to it as from now on. It is the original land of the Butchulla people. We woke up around 3am and got dressed in the warmest clothes that we had – if we’d had room for rubber boots in our suitcases I would have brought some with me. Probably a better raincoat, too. But, all in all, jeans and Chucks and a long sleeve with a light raincoat worked out just fine.

We road out for about 30 minutes or so before slowing down and drifting through the more shallow waters near the island. The guides mentioned that the whales had their travels from migration interrupted by the islands here. The shallow water, costal, and a bit more warm, acts as a semi-nursery for whale calves. It is also a nice respite for younger whales to rest, form pods, and explore before continuing on.

I learned on this trip that Humpback whales don’t swim in family units like Orcas and Dolphins typically do. Rather, they branch off from their mothers and go solo until they randomly group up with other whales and travel together. They can split off at any point or join up at any point. Pods form dynamics which shift when they meet other pods or other whales. We watched two whales, a male and female, circling together and around us for over an hour. Then, from far off, another pod noticed us interacting and slowly began to approach. You could see the dynamic changing. The two whales with us suddenly focused on us less, were more defensive, watching and wondering the new pod.

They also had an extremely large pod of dolphins, maybe 50, circling and swimming around them. It was amazing seeing how tiny and little the dolphins suddenly looked, fully breaching out of the water.

Our guides were very careful, explaining to us that we would NOT be chasing any whales. Rather, we drifted through the water, searching for them, and then cutting the engine to drift near them. We would all holler, wave, and try to get their attention (which worked) but never did we chase them or encroach on them. We were also respectful of other whale watching groups and tours. I did cringe at how many groups were out, we went on a weekday, and I imagine it would be many, many more on the weekends. Especially in September during calving season.