An exciting sighting! Almost...

After yesterday's excitement, we had a leisurely start to the day, blipping for an hour or so in the morning, a visit from a neighbour for coffee, then to the supermarket for some supplies.

I did suggest a hurl out on the bikes, but this suggestion was dismissed out of hand. No chance.

We went for a walk round the Headland. The usual crowd of people, gazing and pointing cameras skywards at the entrance to the reserve. Yes. A koala away up in the tree.

The whole Headland was saved from development in the 1960s by some forward thinking people. It's a huge nature reserve, with lots of walks through it. The usual troop of joggers, runners, surfers. We're always impressed by how many old codgers there are walking along with their surf boards. Presumably they do surf, but maybe they just sit on the beach!

Added to the usual walkers were our friends the crowd of Chinese students. Girls this time (the ones on the beach the other day were all boys). They were so screechy and noisy - I don't think they'd seen the sea before. Always posing in a group always with two fingers raised! A surfer walked by them, wet suit pulled down to his waist. They all squealed at him. He just laughed.

An Aussie man was with them, and we heard him pointing out some scratch marks on a tree, saying they were koala claw marks. There was some graffiti also scratched into the trunk, but I don't think it was the koala! Unless it was called Frank...

I did blip a couple of surfers, having climbed down a steep bank to get to them, but I chose the fisherman, because it shows the pandanas trees and the fantastic ocean views, which were all the way around.

When we got to the tip of the Headland guess what we saw...

A humpback whale leaping in the air and splashing back into the water!!

Well, we saw the tail and the big splash, but missed the first bit.

Actually, we only saw the big splash, and missed the bits before it. A man was standing watching and assured us the whale had come almost right out of the water. The whales are heading up to Hervey Bay to breed apparently.

We did see the gannets plummeting into the sea from a great height.

Back along to the car park, a longer walk than I had intended. We popped in to book our trip to Fraser Island on Saturday. Very exciting.

Couldn't go home without popping down to the beach. Had a great chat with a young man and his 5 year old daughter. He was teaching her to surf, and rode in on the board together, with the wee girl standing. Next time he stayed put, and she took off by herself, but probably didn't realise it. He lives here and is down most nights, so I might blip him another day.

There was also a man and his wee boy building the most amazing kind of huge sandcastle that I suspect Gaudi would have built when he was a boy.

Back home, sore feet, sore legs and the Aussie Masterchef on. It's on every night, very hyped-up and shouty and let's just say I prefer the UK version.