You should have been here yesterday. We must have seen a dozen of them, breaching, playing. But they are not behaving themselves today.
This was the explanation of the skipper of True Blue, Merrimbula’s new whale watching boat.
With the 70-seat catamaran, the town can at last keep up with demand for whale watching.
And in the 20 years since bans on commercial whaling began to take effect around the world, the number of whales has increased to the extent that seeing them is guaranteed, or you get another trip free.
This time of year they journey south to Antarctica’s krill-rich sea. But on the day I went, the whales were not behaving. Well why should they. On this day it was a confused sea with swells coming from two different directions and a lot of fish about. The whales, mostly humpbacks, surfaced for only a brief moment, spouting and then diving again for more than 10 minutes to get more fish.
As an addict of croc docs and nature TV, I have been led to the false view that nature is a series of nine-second grabs, each different and exciting. The hours waiting between each grab is not experienced by the TV watcher.
It was experienced on True Blue.
The TV watcher also gets everything close-up. We only got a glimpse of our whales. But at last they were our whales, not David Attenborough’s.
And whether the whales behave of not, Merrimbula makes a good weekend escape. Drive to Cooma and down Brown Mountain to a turn-off to Candelo before you get to Bega. Between Cooma and Brown Mountain note the silent invasion of introduced tussock grass and the reduced carrying capacity of the land.
Merrimbula itself is a town of holiday units. I’m sure they out-number ordinary houses. I stayed at Albacore Apartments with a fabulous view over Lake Merrimbula.
It has several beautiful occupational therapy fields on which the intellectually disabled can walk up and down 18 times hitting a white ball with a stick and then hitting the stick on the ground in fury. I’m not sure the therapy does them any good, but they look like they are enjoying themselves sometimes and the exercise must be doing them good.
No; the real treat of Merrimbula is the oysters. I’m not a wine writer and cannot describe taste in words. You just have to eat them; they’re not protected like the whales. And you are guaranteed to see the breach the surface every 12 hours with the tide.
Crispin Hull was the guest of Sapphire Coast Tourism. 064 923313. e-mail: sct@acr.net.au Website: www.acr.net.au/scr
Blocklines:
A glimpse of a whale. Not like Attenborough’s, but at least ours.
Oyster beds near Merrimbula Lake.
The town of Merrimbula
Albacore Apartments.