We left Yeppoon on Friday morning and travelled down to the Town of 1770 and after a fairly uneventful drive we arrived just after noon. It's only a small town, but it sits right on the beach and from on top of the hill you could see out over the reef. However, finding something to eat was far more important to us all, so we took a walk down to the local shopping area. Here we found a butcher that seemed to be selling by animal weights, as we managed to get one metric tonne of meat, for little over ten pounds!!

It was here that we also experienced our first proper storm in Australia, as lightning lit up the sky for most of the evening, so our BBQ ended up being a decidedly indoor activity!!

We awoke on Saturday morning to clear blue skies and set off once again, this time to Hervey Bay, the gateway to Fraser Island - the world's largest sand island. Once we arrived, we checked into our apartment and went about trying to decide which of the many activities we wanted to do the next day. There was of course the lure of driving around the sand in a 4wd on Fraser Island, but it faced stiff competition from going big game fishing or indeed going on a whale-watching cruise. After much debate we all agreed on the whale cruise, so after a splash in the pool and some food, it was an early night ready for a big day on Sunday!

Sunday morning came and the weather was fantastic as we took the short drive to the harbour, ready to begin the task of finding the correct boat among the plethora of cruisers and sailing vessels. After a few attempts, we were pointed in the right direction and were soon on our way out over the crystal clear water. Once the safety briefings were finished we took our position on the front deck to soak up some sun before heading back inside for the lunch that was served.

After an hour of so we came across our first group of whales, but after ten minutes or so of watching them do nothing the captain had clearly had enough and so we continued on a little further until we came across three more whales moving around together - the captain informed us that they were in fact mother, son and a male 'suitor' for the mother. We were also told that at some point the son would need to burn off all the milk that it had drunk, so it would be worth hanging around for a little while to see if anything happens, and sure enough after a few minutes both the son and the older male started breaching the surface.

It was a truly remarkable sight to see these huge creatures jumping out of the water and the sound that they made when they came crashing back down again was deafening!! This went on for about ten minutes as first one then the other would leap out and create an almost tidal wave when they landed back on the water. Once they had finished breaching they swam up next to the boat and started slapping their fins against the water. To see just how big they were was amazing, as they stretched out along the length of the boat!!

After half an hour or so, they swam away and disappeared under the water and we made our way back to the harbour, totally satisfied that we had made the right decision for our day's activity. Once back on dry land we headed out for some dinner before returning to the apartment to watch the footage that we had recorded during the day and sit in awe once again at the might of the animals!!

Today we leave for Brisbane where we will spend our last couple of days with Lynn and Leslie before the move onto Sydney, and we have the delightful job of looking for work!