Today’s ‘tourist activity’ is to go whale watching off the Sydney Harbour heads. It has a dual purpose – one, to keep me busy until my late night flight to Hong Kong, and two, to test out my repaired 100-400 lens.
The 100-400 on a Canon 7D is a heavy beast, and takes some skill to hand hold, particularly when you haven’t used it since Epic 2012. Whale watching on a moving boat is a good practice and a real test of the repairs to the lens.
I seem to have lucked out on the boat – there are less than 20 people, compared to another larger vessel which seems to have 100 or more. We also luck out on being the first vessel to encounter a pod of two adult humpback whales who are heading north for the winter. Also lucky in that last night’s sea sickness tablet has worked, so that I’m not that one (actually a few) with my head in the paper bag whilst the whales are on the surface.
The pod are curious about the boat, and keep us busy by approaching closely, diving and then re-appearing where you least expect them. The whales are close enough (and the 100-400 provides enough reach) to see that one has a damaged tail, probably from a close encounter with a boat propeller.
Also interesting to see some black-browed albatrosses so close to Sydney.
