Winter Sunshine and Whales

The extra week of the school holidays for Sarah saw us take a couple of days to explore the 'other side' of the bay. Living on the Mornington Peninsula means we dont get down to Victoria's Surf Coast much, although with all the new bypasses that have been built it is now much quicker. I had wanted to do something to get everyone out of the house, do something new, and most of all, away from computers! This time of year, pregnant whales head to Warrnambool to calve. To me it still seems a freezing and rough place to have a baby but they seem to like it as they have been calving there for a very long time. All types of whales can be seen, Blue Whales, Sperm Whales, Dwarf Minke Whales, but the most popular are the Southern Right Whales.
Anyway, our first afternoon of whale watching had no whales but we were entertained by several seals playing in the surf and riding the waves almost right into the beach. THe second day was more successful with a very heavily pregnant whale spotted out from the viewing platform. Now spotting a whale when they are pregnant is not the most exciting as they are too heavy to throw themselves out of the water so you see their backs and the water spouts mainly - but hey a whale is a whale.

 The surfing Seal

 Whale Spout
( a bigger lens was needed and I kept wathcing the whale and forgetting to take pictures.)

 Whales Back

The journey home found us weaving along the Great Ocean Road to Port Campbell and checking out the 'Shipwreck Coastline' at places like London Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge and no trip is complete without visiting the stunning 12 apostles ( even though there are now only 9 left standing)

The 12 Apostles

Loch Ard Gorge

We were lucky with the weather with beautiful sunshine, but there was a distinct possibility that it could have rained the entire time and as with most holidays it ended much too soon and we returned to get reasy for the next 10 weeks of school.