Floating in the Whales' Playground

Duncan bought his Gravol and good-naturedly agreed to accompany me whale watching. He detests boats and gets sea-sick easily. After the trip to the Great Barrier Reef in 2010, I never thought he'd even agree to take the Toronto Island Ferry again. We got to Dunsborough to catch our boat quite early so saw a bit of the town and knocked back our a.m.flat whites-double shots before heading for the boats. A New Zealander taught us to ask for double shots to get that wonderful rich flavour of freshly brewed coffee. Te Aro on Queen St. in Toronto, owned by New Zealanders gives double shots without asking by the way.

We were ferried to the Naturaliste Charter, the Cetacean Explorer, along with 32 other potential whale watchers. Our captain, a former Taliban hunter-equipped with the binoculars to prove it, explained how to recognize the blows and footprints and whizzed us out near Cape Naturaliste where we had hiked for about an hour the day before. We were certain we had seen whales from the shore, but I really wanted to see them close up. Before too long the giants were breeching and diving near us so the captain slowed the boat so as not to stress the mothers and calves. Now don't get excited, they weren't exactly leaping from the waves, just gently breeching. We then moved to another location as required by law. The boats can only stay briefly in the nursery area favoured by these pairs. We saw about 15 whales, and the sight brought tears to my eyes. It was amazing to be out there floating among them, this was one of life's great privileges for which I am most grateful. Whaling stopped in West Australia in 1978, and the humpback numbers have increased to 40,000. The Great Right Whales are still endangered, not so lucky, according to our guide they number only 1000.

To be sure we had our money's worth the boat headed close to shore where we also saw a herd of New Zealand fur seals and  some lively dolphins.  We could see these much better than the ones we saw in Bay of Islands, NZ. Our photos of the creatures aren't great as it's really difficult to capture them. on film as they dive ad disappear. To compensate, I've included a really interesting video of a humpback that was freed from a net - not here though.

What a day! It's going to be hard to beat this experience. It was fairly calm out there so Duncan probably drugged himself unnecessarily, but he enjoyed the experience too - as much as he could.