Whale Watching

My friends and I have just returned from our two-day respite up in the southern coast. We had a night stroll along the beach dipping our bare feet under the finest sand in the world you could ever imagine. The colour of the sand is crossed between beige and silver. At first, we only saw the southern star that brightly illumined the darkening surrounding as twilight settled down. And not long after, the other stars followed suit in their sparkly twinkling mood.

The sound of the waves were like music as they lapped on the shore. And few anglers were around quietly doing about their business with buckets of bait beside them. My friends told me that one of them had caught a huge fish, I just forgot what was its name.

The following morning, while everybody was still snoring, I slipped out of the house and realised I was the only one moving around the street. It was pretty quiet with only birds screeching as they flitted from tree to tree. Now and then, I would stop to take pictures.

Rainbow Lorikeet

So down, down, down the long steps to the beach... I would pause to sneak in between shrubs and trees and take pictures of the sea between the gap and hole of each tree where I deemed to position myself as I focused on the seaview.

The fresh air was so alluring and how I wished I could just go naked and basked in the breeze from the ocean. But then, there were a couple of anglers I saw afar off, and, besides there's no way I would do as I wished in any public places like that even if I was the only one there. Unless, perhaps, I solely owned the place. Even so, such a nonsense wishful thinking.

There, I found a mound to sit on and started scribbling my notebook when I felt a heavy tap on my shoulder. I catapulted at the sudden thrust of a dog's mischief who jumped right in front of me that I screamed for a little while. When I looked back, there was that cheeky man just smiling at me and my fear subsided. He knew that I was a stranger in their territory.

I took my camera and asked his permission if I could take pictures of his two giant progenies. They were obedient lot as they quickly positioned themselves when told by their master to sit still.

Later, I heard a noise from a mob of three, my friends. They were so loud they could wake up the whole sleepy town. They told me that they saw whales frolicking and that we should go in a hurry to see them.

So we went to the rockhills and we saw about four packs of whales gaily jumping and diving from a distance. Pity they did not come closer so we can truly see them well. My camera being a four-pixel has no power to zoom enough to capture them in a picture, but we did see their long huge black backs and tails each time they showed off their playful tricks.

Each time they jumped and rolled, we screamed with excitement. For a change, I did not bother with my camera. While onshore, one angler could not catch any fish at all. I think we drove the fish away with our noise. We were acting selfishly childish on that rare moment as we let go our spirit of fun.

Yes, the whales probably welcomed their early morning cheering squad because they were really showing off their aquatic somersaulting skills that no humans can ever emulate.

Perhaps, they were also being thankful that someone from a distance were taking delight watching their antics. It was good as whale watching is regarded as a serious business here and truly I, for one, cannot afford to pay a Whale Watching Cruiser. So that was an unforgettable morning happened on Australia Day, 26 of January 2009.

Copyright@2009, LCDancel, All rights reserved

NB Intended for future print publication.