Cruising the Prom

I happened to see a post about this Wilsons Prom Whale Cruise on Facebook. The Prom (a fave), seabirds (maybe), whales (duh) and a chance to get out on water again before doing my first pelagic soon (!!) was a winning combination.  Oh, and a discounted introductory price - bonus!

Port Welshpool jetty and our boat

We did this as a day trip from Melbourne, leaving at about 6.30am and getting to Port Welshpool with plenty of time to spare. At 10.00am we met the crew of Wildlife Coast Cruises and headed out towards Wilsons Promontory National Park aboard the Brianna Lee in calm sunny conditions. The plan was to cruise down the east coast of the Prom to hopefully meet some whales on their southerly migration.

The Looong Jetty

On the way out we passed the Long Jetty which was lined with Cormorants, mostly Little Pied and Black, and a heap of Silver Gulls that had bred on the grassy section at the end - I could just make out a few little grey fluffballs.

Wilsons Promontory National Park

As we neared the coastline the boat disturbed a Whimbrel on the beach and there were the first of many Australasian Gannets. There were also two Wedge-tailed Eagles high over some peaks in the park.  And there were plenty of Black-faced Cormorants hanging out on the rocks as we passed.

Kinda blurry Black-Faced Cormorants

The scenery was pretty amazing, of course.

Classic Prom

Our first mammal sighting came in the form of Australian Fur Seals. They were lying just under the surface of the water with their flippers held up, cos apparently that's what they do.

Australian Fur Seals, or parts thereof

Synchronised seals

Then some Common Dolphins came boosting in and played around the boat.

Common Dolphin

*wheeee!*

A short time later the call out came for whales. We had views of two Humpback Whales that were surfacing ahead before they moved on.

A telltale sign...

...our first whale...

...and a little tail action!

We backtracked slightly to have lunch in the shelter of Waterloo Bay.  More Black-Faced Cormorants, a White-bellied Sea-eagle overhead and some more classic Prom scenery.  Also, a few hikers on the beach - this eastern part of the park can only be reached by foot or boat. Besides a day walk to Sealers Cove, this was the first time I'd been over this side.

Little Waterloo Beach

Back out on the open water and approaching the Prom's lighthouse we encountered some more Humpback Whales - and much closer this time.  I think they said there was a pair of young males as well as a mother and her calf - yay!

The young males - I think!

Despite many visits to the Prom, I'd never seen the lighthouse - perhaps because it's about a 20km walk to get there...  Pretty cool to see it from this angle.

Yeah, probably a good spot for a lighthouse...

On the return trip we stopped in at Refuge Cove where we caught up to a group of boats that had come zooming around the point while we were watching the whales.

Refuge Cove

From here we made our way back up the coast - no more mammal sightings but plenty more Gannets, and as we neared Port Welshpool, lots of Little Pied Cormorants on the various markers.  There had also been a Petrel and some Shearwaters during the trip but I'm not entirely sure which ones.  Oh seabirds, I will ID you one day...

We arrived back at the jetty at precisely 4.00pm.  The crew had been super nice and enthusiastic - I think some of them had been even more excited seeing the whales than the passengers, and they do this for a day job!  Somehow the weather had also played nice the whole time - major win!

It was a bit of a drive back home but not without a quick stop first at Toora Birdhide, a good spot for waders.

Birdhide with a view

It seemed there were only Eastern Curlews that day but that's ok because they're awesome.

The Prom, one more time

From here we had a final view of Wilsons Promontory before heading out of 'Prom Country' and back home again.