I was really excited about this trip, as whenever I visit anywhere that is great for whale watching, I am usually there at the wrong time of the year or I have just missed seeing some! So, this time I was full of hope, as it was the right time of year to view them – just as long as they didn’t decide to go into hiding! We booked a boat trip with Five Star Whale Watching. The staff here were really friendly and extremely knowledgeable about whales. We started off by going out to Race Rocks Lighthouse, which is a protected marine area off the coast of Victoria. The rock is literally littered with huge male sealions that apparently migrate to ‘winter’ in the south Vancouver Island waters. They then re-join the females in time for the mating season.
We then went further out and circled round, as we were suddenly notified of a whale sighting! The boat obviously couldn’t go too close, so we had to wait for the whales to come a little closer to us. We were lucky enough to see two humpback whales, and they came closer to the boat than I expected. It was tricky trying to get photos, as they kept coming up briefly to the surface and then going down again. I did get a great little video, though! So, this was a really enjoyable and memorable trip. I would have liked to have seen some orcas, too, but I was grateful to have seen any whales at all!
