Whales

I love the Labs, I really do. But when my kind friends offered to keep an eye on them both so that I could have some rare Lab-free time, it took me about a nanosecond to collect my car keys and head for the door. What would I do? Swim? Check out the markets? Explore national parks? Treat myself to a good pub lunch? Buy a lottery ticket? So many options.

It was a beautiful sunny day so I decided to go fishing - something I love but which is impossible to do when you have a black Labrador whose most favourite game in the world ever is chasing a hook at the end of a fishing line. So I dusted off the rod and tackle that I've carried around with me all this time (optimist that I am) and headed to Davidson Whaling Station, where I could knock off a couple of birds with the one stone, taking in a bit of National Park and some local history while hauling in the big ones (fish that is, not birds).

Davidson Whaling Station is at the southern end of Twofold Bay, in the Beowa National Park, on the land of the Yuin people. It's the site of the Davidson family cottage "Loch Garra" and, as the name suggests, it's where the Davidson family operated a commercial whaling business from around 1860 through to the 1940s.

Of course the Yuin people and their ancestors had been hunting whales in open boats with hand-held harpoons for thousands of years before the Davidsons and other whaling families arrived in the area. Pods of Orcas (killer whales) would drive baleen whales into Twofold Bay where they could be harpooned, and would then be rewarded with whale meat. Because of this special relationship with the Orcas, the Indigenous peoples called them "Beowas" meaning "brothers" or "kin".

When the Davidsons, along with the Boyd and Imlay families, started commercial whaling in the 1800s they adopted the same age-old techniques, using a pod of 23 Orcas to alert them to the presence of migrating baleen whales by breeching and slapping their tails. The whalers would row out into the bay at night and harpoon the resting baleen whales. George Davidson would anchor a dead whale to the ocean floor overnight so that the Orcas could feed on its tongue and lips. By morning, the remains of the whale would float to the surface and would be towed to shore for processing.

There's not much left of the whaling station or the Davidson's cottage but the small beach where the whales would be dragged ashore is now a beautiful spot to throw in a line. I managed to hook a few inedible marine creatures before heading off to the Eden wharf to try my luck there. And I'm very glad I did.

After about 15 minutes of feeding the toad fish I gazed off into the distance just in time to see what looked very much like a small whale breaking the surface of the water. I exchanged a look with the chap fishing next to me just to make sure I wasn't the only one seeing things. We confirmed with each other that we weren't hallucinating when the whale came back up to the surface, blew a bit of water from its blowhole and dived again.

Thankfully, commercial whaling is a thing of the past in this country and Eden is still very much a destination for migrating whales. But by now they should be calving in Antarctic waters and are rarely seen in Eden at this time of year. To all of us whale experts on the wharf at the time, this whale appeared to be a juvenile humpback and we concurred that it was most likely sick and had been abandoned by its pod. It entertained us for a good half hour, circling the wharf, diving just below the surface and then coming back up for air. It was an incredible experience for everyone there to be so close to such a magnificent animal. After several laps of the wharf it visited a few other touristy spots around Twofold Bay before eventually heading out to open sea.

I found out this morning that the volunteer whale rescue organisation, ORRCA, knows about this whale and that it is, sadly, believed to be injured or diseased. ORRCA is now looking for it so that it can be euthanised.

I do miss the Labs when I'm not with them, but I had a whale of a time without them (had to be said!).

Here's a selection of the several hundred photos I took on my day out, and one pic of the Labs waiting patiently while I had fun without them. Juddy is unfortunately lumbered with the cone of shame for another week but is making good progress with her new titanium knee.