At the beginning, the humpback whales appear just below the surface

The first two hours were a bit stressful and at the end a little boring. It’s a common feeling when you’re expecting to get something and nothing is happening, nothing at all what we were coming for. But being patient, once more time, give us a huge gift. Stuff you can’t forget.

I took the boat from Sydney to go to the ocean. I have gone three or four times in the bay on boat, it’s a very beautiful bay, and today is different.

From May, whales start their migration to the North, looking for warmer water. And they used to pass near the coast here. We are nine or ten on the boat, include the crew. In two hours, we have only seen two albatross, big birds took off from the water when we were arriving near them. Two hours gazing the horizon, looking for a stream, looking the waves. It is chilly, but the weather is good. Waves are between 2 and 3 meters high, sometimes a little bit more, but not too high. Two hours and at last one stream, around three hundred meters far from us. Go ! Arriving on the point, nothing. Waiting fifteen minutes, nothing. Perhaps behind, or somewhere we are not watching. Too bad, we’re going to come back, it’s not the good day. A second stream, straight ahead, just one hundred meters far. Go ! Two minutes after, another one. Nop, two. They are two whales. It is very difficult to catch these magic moments on pictures. I have to be very prompt and fast, and the boat is always moving.

We follow them during two hours, accompanying their migration to the North. They blow three or four streams then they dive for around three minutes or more, until three or four other streams. They are big, go slowly, and keep the cap to the north, on peace and quiet. One time, one of them go up near to the boat, less than ten meters. Huge and beautiful. The stream and then the silence, slipping on and into the ocean. Focus on them, I don’t heard anything else, admiring their slow moving, their quiet way. Actually, nobody speaks, like me focus on them. Sometimes they are in touch, like a stroke. Pretty good, wonderful. And finally, I put my camera in my bag, thinking about nothing else, watching them and listening, only that, simply that.

I had never though to see whales a day, until the famous night. But what a feeling, whoa !

Next article will be about the New Zealand. Take off on Monday morning.

See ya