Woman with fish and bicycle

We stop at Bermagui, en route from Mollymook to Eden, to see the Blue Pool, a saltwater ocean pool and to watch the migrating whales far out at sea. The town’s information centre has some historic photos on display, this one among them: a woman with a record catch. Date unknown, but long before Irina Dunn came up with “a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”. 

This is the season for whale-watching, but the weather is turning and we learn that no boats are going out tomorrow from Eden. But we do hear a fascinating story about the early whaling days — apparently, the killer whales worked in collaboration with the whalers, herding the other whales so that they could be caught. In return, the whalers would leave the whale carcasses for a couple of days, letting the orcas take the tongues and the lips before the whalers retrieved went back to get what they wanted.