It was the Australian winter and I was desperate to see some whales, which migrate down the east coast from July to November. One beautiful Saturday morning we rented a van and headed south to Jervis Bay. We should have been there by the late afternoon, but we got lost and didn’t arrive until 7pm.
Suddenly we met with a group of kangaroos in the darkness. Everybody jumped out of the van yelling wildly. Armed with cameras we tried to surround these poor creatures. Soon it turned out that we had no place to sleep. All the hostels were full so we ended up sleeping in the van. The van was big, although maybe a little bit too narrow for seven people to sleep in. I didn’t care because I was ready to sacrifice everything for the whales. Even the snoring of one of my friends couldn’t spoil my mood.
A sailor’s daughter
The big day started, as the big day should. We ran down to the harbour and saw three dolphins playing right next to the pier. But our enthusiasm faded after four hours aboard our whalewatch ship. Apparently, the whales weren’t as eager to see us as we were to see them. The waves were enormous and some of us vomited over the side of the boat. Not me, I thought. I’m a sailor’s daughter… An hour later I was wretching over the side too.
The captain of our ship gave us our tickets back because that’s what they usually do to prevent the bands of furious tourists from attacking the company centre. He said we should try again soon, blaming the weather. We went back to Sydney frustrated. We hated those fickle, ungrateful whales. But I was determined to see them, even if I had to chase them for years.
So a month later I decided to give the whales another chance to meet me again. This time I chose the afternoon cruise. I’d made enquiries among the passengers of the morning boat, to make sure the possibility of spotting whales was good. But my precautions were in vain and I didn’t see any whales. I went back to Sydney quite depressed, cursing those vicious, spiteful animals. I was ready to buy a harpoon.
On my trip to Hervey Bay in Queensland I decided to try one more time. I took another cruise – I wasn’t expecting much so I had a book with me. I was sitting with the book on the ship and already preparing some sort of justification and rationalisation in case we didn’t see any whales again. Naïve people on the boat were sticking to the front of the ship, watching the horizon.
Suddenly one of those poor fellows started shouting in excitement, convinced he saw a whale. One minute later everybody was surrounding the yelling person. Me too. Just in case.
After another minute there were two huge, dark shapes in the water in front of us. Humpbacks.
Worth the wait
We were getting closer and closer and soon we could see their flippers. The whales were diving and then they appeared on the surface slowly and majestically. We could see them under the water as moving shadows. The humpbacks were cycling around our boat. In order to make them come closer our captain instructed us to yell and scream like a horde of mental patients.
The whales weren’t as active as dolphins; they were rather slow, although the captain told us they could swim very quickly if they wanted to. One of the passengers was hysterically shouting: “Jump! Jump!”
Maybe that’s why they didn’t.
They emerged from the sea like gigantic, friendly, pre-historic creatures, showing us their huge nostrils and enormous heads. They came so close that we could almost touch them. They looked as if they were smiling at us. They were definitely laughing at me, but I didn’t care. I took dozens of photos to remember those amazing moments. I’m so glad that I perservered.
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December 22nd, 2008
