Eden, Australia

We enjoyed our day in Eden, a small town with a big history of whaling. We could have believed it was named after the biblical Eden because it was so beautiful but we were told that wasn’t the case. We took a catamaran tour of the bay which allowed us to see the interesting rock formations and tea tree forests that are part of the National Park.

The whalers used beaches like the one above to bring the catch for processing and the richest among them built this mansion which is now part of the park. But the most interesting thing about the town and its whaling heritage was the story of how the orcas worked with the men to get the whales. Long ago the aboriginals had noted that the orcas were black with white, just like them with their white paint on, and that when they hunted the whales they beached them and ate only the tongue and the lips and then “left them for the aboriginals”. So, since they looked like them, and since only family brings you food, the aboriginals considered them as family who were working together with them. When the Europeans came to go whaling the aboriginals shared this information and explained how the orcas “herded” the whales toward the beach. After observing for a while the skeptical Europeans eventually came to understand how the orcas worked and found that indeed they would herd the whales to shore and if the whalers would just let the orcas have the lips and tongue the rest was left for the whalers. When whaling stopped the town built a museum, complete with the skeleton of the most famous of their orca partners, Tom, to explain this unique partnership. Apparently orcas kill whales all over the world, but in the ocean where the carcass just sinks to the bottom and provides for many scavengers, whereas in this particular place they used the beaches instead. It was a most fascinating museum.

Do you remember the thousands of logs we saw on docks in other cities? Here they are pulverizing the logs and filling ships to send to Asia where the pulp will be made into paper products to be sent back to Australia.

In a lecture onboard we heard the story of the first expeditions into the outback of Australia and the conditions they endured were beyond imagination. Here in Eden we heard about their ultra ultra marathon and it sounded almost as horrible to me. By invitation only, from all over the world, people come to race 260 km, ALL UP HILL to the top of this mountain, and some have done it in 24 1/2 hours!

Brenda and I walked back from town and as I looked down on the water it reminded me of Deception Pass. We had a great day in Eden but are always glad to get back onboard and head for the next port!