I saw whales more later

Had a good nights sleep and can write now. We were exhausted cold and wet when we got back at 10.45pm last night, but it was worth every minute. This holiday is unbelievable with all the things we are doing.

We set off towards Victoria in the morning. It is a 2 hour drive in the traffic. We wanted to visit the Butchart Gardens in the morning and whale watching in the afternoon.

Butchart Gardens was planted 100 years ago and is a famous horticultural wonder ( no I didn’t copy that last sentence from the brochure it came from within me lol ) needless to say it was beautiful and we loved it. We didn’t love the thousands of mainly Japanese visitors in there though but that’s another story! 

   We left to travel on to Victoria and our adventure. Fortunately we had a snack for dinner time and a drink because we had to last without either until we got back to the port which we hadn’t realised. We got to check in for the trip and our faces fell. They had cancelled our trip and not let us know. Anyway they fitted us up with another whale watching firm on the other side of the harbour a couple of miles a way and a hurried taxi drive later we managed to get on just before the boat left. Phew! This trip was a 4 and a half hour one on a much nicer boat and so we were happy.

First we saw a solitary male orcha unusual to be on its own in a small bay they told us. It moved very quickly and kept close to shore. People in Arbutus Bay were sitting on the rocks watching it. We stayed there for a while moving with the whale. It was like watching a huge version of Fungie in Ireland! Then we sped off for our journey North to see a pod of orcha whales. 

 The clouds were very grey by now and it was raining, eventually the whales were spotted. There had been 8 or 9 the day before but they seemed to have split up and there were definitely 4………A huge male a matriarch female with a baby and another large whale. It was absolutely pouring down by now but no one minded we were having an amazing time following the whales. They move very quickly and there were 3 other boats following close by too. When they got to the headland of the Island they started to feed. They probably had a seal which they were playing about with between the 4 of them.  

   They come up to breath every 4 to 7 minutes and their breath with vapourised water was very impressive. They stayed close by the shore again and we had a really good show from them. The baby even pushed its tail high out of the water a couple of times. It was fascinating to watch them for so long in one area. The crew said we were very lucky to witness this feeding and playing for such a long time. 

   Vince and I were absolutely drenched, I had their waterproof coat on and my hat which is water proof acted like an umbrella. Our cameras binoculars and video recorder are just about dried out now!.

We could hear the whales breathing and their clicks and talking as the crew put a microphone into the water for us to hear…. Awesome! 

    The pilot eventually said”well all good things have to come to an end, they are resting now and we should be setting off” and he started the engines. With that the 4 whales followed our boat and the huge male went underneath us and came up along side right near to Vince and I and the others followed him.It was like they were saying goodbye or don’t go yet!  

   As you can tell I am never going to forget this fabulous experience EVER.

We got talking to a Russian girl Marina who was by herself on the boat. She is waiting to finally become a Canadian citizen,after studying here. She is Blandines age and we promised to keep in touch with her and send some photos of the whales. Had a very interesting conversation with her.

We got back to Victoria harbour, miles away from our car and cold wet hungry tired and thirsty and dirty. So we took the harbour ferry across the harbour and bought ourselves fish and chips, which we ate in our car with the heater full on! Then poor Dad had to drive back 2 hours to our hotel.

We had been on the sea for 4 and a half hours. And had the most brilliant time xxxx