We've seen humpbacks breaching in the Caribbean and Pacific, sailed past a sleeping basking shark, dinghied past pilot whales frolicking in the ocean close to anchorages and been on a ferry through the San Juan islands that went very near a pod of orcas but we were yet to swim with the beasts, Vava'u offers just that and we couldn't wait to grasp the opportunity.
Humpback whales make the 6 000km journey from Antarctica to winter breeding grounds, of which Tonga is one of them. The whales begin arriving in June and the calves are born between July and September.
It was one of the best experiences so far on this adventure only second to the engagement (of course!).
The tale of how we came to do the whale watching is worth telling before I continue. Coming into Vava'u we had caught a 20lb mahi mahi that we didn't fancy attempting to demolish by ourselves so I sent Dylan off in the dinghy to distribute to other yachties in the anchorage. One yacht he went to was home for a week to an Australian couple on holiday and they traded the fish for a dozen eggs. Awesome!! But not only did they provide us with the protein they also mentioned a whale watching day that they were no longer going on as they had been already and didn't need a second day. Sooo we took them up on the offer as we had heard you have to book far in advance in peak season and arranged to meet up with them the next day for more details. The next day comes and Chris and Kerry insist on giving it to us for an engagement present. Can you believe it? We had known this lovely couple for less than 24 hours and they were keen to provide us with such a fantastic experience for free! This is another example of what we mean about meeting such interesting, generous, inspiring people that we never would have met were we still in London working our corporate jobs. It contributes to our new philosophy of 'paying it forward'
We arrived at Dolphin Pacific for 8:30, given a wet suit and shuffled onto a boat with 6 other people and 2 guides. The aim of the game is to keep a look out for whales, if we see one shout and a guide will get in the water to see if the whale is still nearby, if so it's our cue to jump in and swim over to observe the beast. So we were suited up and spent the morning chasing spouts of water with no whale willing to hang around for us tourists. After lunch we were starting to think that this may be a day where the whales just don't want to play when we spotted another spout that turned out to be a surfacing calf. Yay it was hanging around and we were the first group of 4 in the water.
We swim over and squint into the deep blue, just making out some white barnacles presuming they were making themselves at home on the calf. I start snapping away thinking this may be the best we get…when the calf starts to surface. Woooooow. The shape starts to become very apparent, then the mouth, the fins, the huge eye staring at us. It swims right up to us, giving us a good eyeball whilst Dylan and I just float there, frozen in awe, squeezing each other's arm daring not to move and at the same time wanting to move to back away slightly from this beast of the ocean. It passed an arm's length from us, taking a gulp of air and submersing back into the murky depths.
Now the second time we went in the water, the calf made it even more exciting. Once again it emerges from the deep, comes right up close to us, even closer than the first time so that the left fin was centimetres from us and then it decides it wants to play /fight and slaps it's tail right next to our heads. Like a collection of squid, we all inked ourselves there and then as the water around us turned into a soda stream and we checked each other for all limbs still attached. Nervous giggles were exchanged by all. Phhhheeeewwwweeeee it was amazing. The guide found it hysterical (perhaps he also inked himself) as we just stared at each other jaws to the floor. Absolutely unbelievable, the power of these beasts experienced first hand, 2 tons of flesh raining down right near our heads. Here's a video of our second swim with the cheeky denizen, unfortunately in my shock must have twitched my right forefinger and shut the film off right as the tail comes down but you wouldn't have seen much anyway apart from bubbles and our fins flailing about. Another yachtie had a Go-Pro so will ask him for the footage.
An experience not to be missed for all those that find themselves in this part of the world.
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