I arrived in my room to find this message: We are experiencing problems at the moment with cockatoos entering guest rooms via open balcony doors, clawing and chewing their way through pieces of room furniture and guests personal effects.
Sure. But five minutes later an enormous white cockatoo with a yellow plume on its head came onto my balcony. Ill keep that door closed.
As we were sitting waiting for the boat to take us to Hayman, I saw a giant splash in the water, not too far away. I looked more closely. Whales! I exclaimed. That makes the 31 hours of travelling worthwhile.
There are apparently 600 humpback whales currently in the Whitsunday Islands, calving before they begin their journey back to Antarctic waters. We saw a mother and calf. According to the skipper, the calf was less than two days old (apparently their colouration changes after 48 hours). Calves weigh 1.5 tonnes at birth and the mother is feeding it with 600 litres of milk a day. When the calf reaches 3 tonnes, it will be big enough to survive in the cold Antarctic seas.
I’m just mimicking what the captain said. One of my fellow travellers said I sounded like an expert. “I’ve read Moby Dick,” I replied.