Hermanus
They say Hermanus is the best land-based whale watching in the world, but Katie and I had gone twice to see if we could spot any of the big guys and come back without a single whale sighting between us. But this weekend, we made the pilgrimage the third time, and our efforts finally paid off.
When they say "land-based," they mean that you can sit on the shore and see whales--real, live, huge Southern Right Whales--a few dozen yards offshore.
We knew the other two times that we went that we were jumping the gun a little bit. They say the whales can show up as early as late July, but they really don't show up in any large numbers until around now. When they do show up after a long commute from Antarctica, they always seem to congregate in the same stretch of coastline around Hermanus. On the beautiful two-hour drive out to Hermanus on Friday, we tried not to get too excited, even though we had been assured that the whales were waiting for us this time. When we turned into the parking lot that faces the ocean, though, there was one right there in front of us.
And then we saw two more right next to him. And three more just a bit further down the shore. Right there, swimming in the waves, turning on their sides and sticking their flippers up out of the water. Or they'd stick their noses out of the water and bob up and down a bit. That's called "spyhopping," apparently. The whole show they put on was amazing.
Our pictures don't do them justice. Even the good ones look like bumps in the water.
We were suitably impressed with our hour or so of whale watching, and headed on to where we were staying the night, with friends of my parents who had come through town this past week. We had a great dinner and shared many a bottle of wine with them, and had a blast. We figured we could round off a good trip by stopping by the same spot the next morning on our way out of town.
But our hosts had a better spot in mind. We followed their car to a turnoff a mile or so down from the spot we had picked the day before, and ended up in a dirt parking lot overlooking the ocean. We spotted a few more whales, but these were further out in the ocean.
After standing there watching the whales for a few minutes, I spotted one, halfway hidden by a huge wave, as he was leaping halfway out of the water. Then, when I had a clearer view, he did it again, getting about three quarters of the way out of the water before turning on his side and landing in the waves with a massive splash.
Then he did it again. And again. And again.
In all, I think he breached about seven or eight times. He was a ways out from the shore, so his size, and the effort that must have been involved in each titanic leap, didn't hit me at first. But then I realized that it seemed like it was happening in slow motion--he'd go up, twist, and seem to float in the air for a moment before gathering speed again to crash into the water like a kid doing a cannonball. Gravity works the same for everyone, so if it took him that long to land again after reaching his peak, that meant he was really, REALLY launching himself far out of the water. Which meant he was huge.
Our attempts to photograph the moment ended up with us snapping pictures of the splashes. But our pictures of the other bumps in the water are here.
When they say "land-based," they mean that you can sit on the shore and see whales--real, live, huge Southern Right Whales--a few dozen yards offshore.
We knew the other two times that we went that we were jumping the gun a little bit. They say the whales can show up as early as late July, but they really don't show up in any large numbers until around now. When they do show up after a long commute from Antarctica, they always seem to congregate in the same stretch of coastline around Hermanus. On the beautiful two-hour drive out to Hermanus on Friday, we tried not to get too excited, even though we had been assured that the whales were waiting for us this time. When we turned into the parking lot that faces the ocean, though, there was one right there in front of us.And then we saw two more right next to him. And three more just a bit further down the shore. Right there, swimming in the waves, turning on their sides and sticking their flippers up out of the water. Or they'd stick their noses out of the water and bob up and down a bit. That's called "spyhopping," apparently. The whole show they put on was amazing.
Our pictures don't do them justice. Even the good ones look like bumps in the water.
We were suitably impressed with our hour or so of whale watching, and headed on to where we were staying the night, with friends of my parents who had come through town this past week. We had a great dinner and shared many a bottle of wine with them, and had a blast. We figured we could round off a good trip by stopping by the same spot the next morning on our way out of town.
But our hosts had a better spot in mind. We followed their car to a turnoff a mile or so down from the spot we had picked the day before, and ended up in a dirt parking lot overlooking the ocean. We spotted a few more whales, but these were further out in the ocean.
After standing there watching the whales for a few minutes, I spotted one, halfway hidden by a huge wave, as he was leaping halfway out of the water. Then, when I had a clearer view, he did it again, getting about three quarters of the way out of the water before turning on his side and landing in the waves with a massive splash.
Then he did it again. And again. And again.
In all, I think he breached about seven or eight times. He was a ways out from the shore, so his size, and the effort that must have been involved in each titanic leap, didn't hit me at first. But then I realized that it seemed like it was happening in slow motion--he'd go up, twist, and seem to float in the air for a moment before gathering speed again to crash into the water like a kid doing a cannonball. Gravity works the same for everyone, so if it took him that long to land again after reaching his peak, that meant he was really, REALLY launching himself far out of the water. Which meant he was huge.
Our attempts to photograph the moment ended up with us snapping pictures of the splashes. But our pictures of the other bumps in the water are here.
posted by Erik at 10:09 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home