Spaceship Journey 2012 - Day 5, the coast of New South Wales

On day 5 we woke up to a frosty morning in Bemboka. Here the camera ran out of charge, so there are no photos after Bemboka. After breakfast we continued our journey south-east and caught up with the Princes Highway which took us to the old whaling community of Eden. There we went to the Killer Whale Museum and learnt about the history of whaling in the area.

One of the most interesting things in the museum was the story and skeleton of Old Tom. When the whale hunting went on in the area between 1828 and 1930 the killer whales had a fascinating partnership with the whalers. The killers would actually round up passing whales and herd them into the bay, whilst leaping in the air to attract the attention of the whalers. The men would then jump in their rowing boats with their harpoons and spears and the killer whales would make sure the whale could not dive and escape. Once the whale was dead the men would leave the carcass for the killers to eat from. There were many stories of how men had fallen in the water when a whale smashed the boat, and the killers would stay close until they were safe and never hurt a man in the water.

Old Tom was one of the well known individuals and they recognised him by his distinct dorsal fin. He was at least 70 years old when he was found dead, floating in the bay in September 1930. His skeleton was preserved and put in a museum, and that marked the end of the whaling era.

After the museum we went to Boyd's Tower south of Eden to have a look and eat lunch by the sea. As we arrived a man came running up the path towards his car, and he told us to hurry - there were whales in the bay and he needed to get his camera! We ran down the path to the cliffs just in time to watch a few whales passing. They were quite far out, but we could clearly see their massive bodies breaking the surface and the spray from their blow holes.

After lunch we carried on north along the coast road all the way up to Batemans Bay. Just north of there we found an excellent camp site to spend the night at. It was hidden away quite a few kilometres off the main road, right on the edge of the beach. The forest was fantastic, huge ancient looking trees all the way to the shore line. There were kangaroos hopping about and there were two Kookaburras sitting right next to us watching us cook dinner. They were so close we could reach out and touch them. It was an amazing place - I would have loved to stay a couple of days to explore the area but unfortunately our adventure was coming to and end.

That night we fell asleep to the "thud thud thud" of kangaroos hopping past the Spaceship.

Frosty morning in Bemboka