Whales and Wombats

Friday, 26^th August

The highlight of our trip was viewing the Southern Right Whales at Head of the Bight, 12 klms off the Eyre Highway
We woke to another lovely day at the Nullarbor roadhouse, packed up and drove a short distance to the turnoff. The diesel fuel at the roadhouse was the most expensive to date, $2.02 per litre.

Mother and calf

John on boardwalk with whales behind him.

awesome

Bunda Cliffs

This whale was a distance away.

We had to pay $10 each to view the whales, as it turned out, it was worth every cent. This is the whale nursery for a few months of the year. The whales come here to have their calves, before leaving in October for the southern waters. Walking down the boardwalk we could see a whale breaching a couple of klms out. The smack as he hit the water was loud even at that distance, he or she put on quite a show. I managed a photo of his tail.

So close to shore

All I could say was “wow” as I got closer to the water, in front of us were about twenty whales and calves. The Bunda Cliffs are so stunning at the Bight, for a moment you forget that this is the bottom of mainland Australia. Straight out to sea is the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.

Bunda Cliffs behind us.

But it was all about the whales. We spent two hours in awe of these magnificent creatures, between us John and I took so many photos, luckily we got some good ones.

Bunda Cliffs

After two hours we had to leave, we had almost 300 klms to travel to Ceduna SA.

All I can say is to everyone, you have to see the whales in their natural surroundings here at the Bight.

We reached Ceduna about 2pm, stopping at the quarantine station to be checked that we weren’t bringing any fruit, vegetables or honey in South Australia. I had sorted out the fridge the night before. Our first stop when we arrived in Ceduna was to restock.

Ceduna is on Murat Bay, a pretty town, the caravan park is right at the foreshore and next to the pub, where we had King George Whiting for dinner. We are booked in at Ceduna for two nights, the past few days John has done a lot of driving.

Sunset in Ceduna

Saturday 27^th August.

We couldn’t top yesterday’s viewing of the whales, however it runs a close second. John and I visited a wombat centre and to our delight, we saw how injured and homeless wombats and other fauna are cared for. A lady runs the centre from a shed in her yard, she relies on donations to keep the place running. National Parks and Wildlife usually bring her baby wombats when their mothers are killed on the road. This area of the country is a wombat habitat. We had a cuddle of a baby wombat in her little material pouch, while a larger one ran around chewing on John’s shoe lace. 

Isnt he cute?

Baby wombat.

A little kangaroo joey “Annabel “ wriggled her way out of her pouch and hopped around the room. Two older wombats were taken out of their “hutches” which were boxes with lids. We came away with a greater understanding of what these carers do for animals. This lady has a full time unpaid job looking after many animals, including lambs, baby emu, a hawk with an injured wing, lizards etc. We gave her a small donation as we left, and came away with admiration for all she is doing for our wildlife.

Annabel in her "pouch"

After a drive around the township and the bay we came back to the park for the afternoon. John printed his photos, he now has four albums filled. We are into day 95 of the trip and have travelled 14, 500 klms since we left home on 23^rd May.

Tomorrow we head towards Port Augusta but will probably stay overnight on the way.