On the morning of Sunday 2nd October, we were up bright, early and excited. For the first time we would see one of the planet’s great wonders, one of the largest animals alive today: Humpback Whales, or Megaptera novaeangliae. Heading up the coast a few dozen kilometres to Redcliffe, we arrived to find the car park we’d been advised to use had a market on top of it. Still, we had an hour to kill, so we took a look around and it turned out it was rather a good market, where Lucy picked up a pair of Happy Pants. Everyone needs a pair of Happy Pants! Anyway.
The boat that took us out from Redcliffe jetty was a catamaran called Eye Spy. And I know that modern catamarans are fast, but- well, that doesn’t prepare you for being on one. If you’ve ridden a fast ferry or such recently you’ll know what I mean. It’s like a speedboat the size of a restaurant. Once underway, we headed outside the cabin to the open deck, enjoying the placid speed as the fairly strong wind was with us so it hardly felt like there was a wind at all.
Suddenly the boat’s engine went quiet and we slowed to a bobbing halt. I could have sworn I heard the sound of whale song at that moment; sure enough, they’d begun playing whalesong through the loudspeakers (that were used to communicate narration by the resident expert on the Humpbacks: Captain Kerry Lopez). Playing the sounds on the speakers while catching the first glimpse of the slick black forms breaking the surface might sound like a bit of a smoke & mirrors trick, but the effect was charmingly completing.
