Out on the humpback highway

In This Issue:
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* Today's daily dose: Out on the humpback highway
* 100 Day Challenge: Still chucking stuff away
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My mother in law is over for a visit...well when I say mother in law, I mean ex- but it gets far too complicated. We get on well believe it or not, so when she said she was heading over to Perth for a holiday I made a decision to take a couple of days out of my rather insane schedule to spend some time with her, after all, none of us are getting any younger. And before you say anything - traveling always makes her sick, but she gets on the plane anyway. Which is why, rather than re-do the same sights we've always done, I decided I would do something a lot different - I just hoped she was game enough to give it a go.

I have been writing my bucket list for a couple of years now, all those things I said I wanted to do - at some point in the future - and on the list was "whale watching". We are very fortunate to live in Western Australia and right next to the Indian Ocean which is lovingly referred to as the humpback highway. Whales travel the coast twice a year. On the way up the coast to the Kimberly after feeding in Antarctica they swim several hundred kilometers out to sea. But after the females give birth and spend time resting and playing around (if you get my meaning) they travel back down the coast and the food in the Antarctic - but with the young in tow, they hug a 30 kilometer contour line down the coast, which brings them close enough for people to see them... maybe. The first time we tried to get tickets to the whale watching cruise, the boat was fully booked (I'd forgotten the bit about it being school holidays). Not to be out smarted I booked online, and yesterday we traveled down to the port city of Fremantle and caught the boat. It turns out Margaret was scared, she wasn't sure if she would get sea sick, but the thought of seeing whales did it for her and nothing was going to stop her.

20 minutes out to sea the captain saw a whale breaching - and he slowed down to get a bearing on where the animal might be. Nothing. The whale decided it wasn't going to show again. To say the atmosphere on the boat was down was a complete understatement. 40 minutes and several more laps around the island of Rottnest, I had all but given up hope, but I didn't want to say anything, but I could tell Margaret was getting disappointed. The boat struggled through the massive swell, the wind was quite strong and barf bags were given out (thankfully we didn't need them). but one gentleman muttered he was severely regretting the eggs he had eaten for breakfast. And then it came, whales at 3 o'clock. The captain slowed the boat (there are strict regulations regarding how close a boat can get to the animals - but if they come to you ... hey a different story). We had 2 people on board from the whale research institution, and they were able to give us some amazing information. I had both a normal camera (point n shoot) and a video camera with me. My mother in law, also had her camera, but to be honest to capture the perfect image was going to be impossible using the camera, so after a while I abandoned it, let the video camera run and just stood and watched the spectacle.

What we saw was quite amazing, one individual had lost its tail (fluke) and another large male had been wrapped in ropes from fishing lines and was deeply scarred. The researchers took photographs, these camera images would be added to the database to identify and "name" the animals. Despite there being, supposedly several thousand animals, with several meters high swell, you have to realize just how lucky you are to see anything out there. To say I feel blessed to have been able to spend some time to see them is an understatement.

As you know I work a lot of hours, and taking time out yesterday to see the whales meant that today was always going to be insane. But to me, doing these kinds of crazy things helps put everything else back into perspective. It does help me put the balance back into the work / life thing - especially when you do get the perfect picture. Believe it or not, the rest of the pictures I took are absolute rubbish - though the video is amazing. With a point and shoot camera you have to be incredibly lucky - and yes I was.

• Go to as many events as you can
• Check your local area - what haven't you taken the time out to see? And 
• Don't ever think your work is more important than life experiences. I've given Margaret a holiday she will always remember. All it took was a day off, a lot of luck and $100 - but the result was and is priceless.

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100 Day Challenge: The daily posts
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Some of my son's friends don't believe him when he shows them my website and says "my mum does this" well in answer to his critics who say - no she doesn't - today's discard items are his - nuts, bolts and plates he's littered the house with over the years of skateboarding. I'd put a plastic bag of bits into the drawer and when I was going through it (the drawer that is) he decided it wasn't necessary to keep them after all. But had I thrown them away - you could almost guarantee he would have needed them. Anyway today's discarding 100 things in 100 days continues http://www.motivateme.info/discarding-100-things/

And the daily posts are in : http://www.motivateme.info/100-days-challenge/

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