Whale watching
Last week we went for our whale watching experience for my birthday. I actually wanted to do this a for a long time now and when kenny asked me what I wanted to do on my birthday, I remembered this. I also found a great deal in groupon so it was all set. There are various places where whale watching tour operators are located but we had the one that left from darling harbour. It was a four hour lunch cruise that had a 95% success rate in finding whales. So we arrived in darling harbour around 12 pm since the booking said to arrive before 12:15 pm.
After the boat arrived, the people started to board and get settled. The boat had two levels, thankfully, since I didn't really know what kind of boat we were going to have. There are those operators that only had motor boats to go whale watching with but I'm not sure if I'll survive in that. The first few minutes inside the boat, the tour guide "Biggles" introduced himself, the other staff, and gave us a bird's eye view of what we can expect and what we couldn't. He was explaining about the whales being migratory this time of the year, their breeding patterns and stuff.
So after a while they started to let us get our food from the buffet table (yes there is a buffet table!) and make our way back to where we were seated. It was a good thing that they served lunch earlier into the trip because the waves were still a lot calmer. After eating, we went outside to see the waves and views since we are also passing by some of the nicer views of the city.
Two hours into the trip and Biggles said we are now heading out to the Tasman sea. The waves are now getting rougher. He also said that we can now expect to see some whales so we got observant. He was saying that as whales swim they have an uptime (when they breathe) and a downtime (when they swim ahead). The signal of the uptime would be the splash of water coming from the wales that actually looked like a geyser and the signal of the downtime would be when they show their tails. We didn't have pictures of the whales since I just wanted to really experience it without the distraction of a camera besides the operator said they'll post pictures on FB. It was exciting when we first saw them. There were two whales which we spotted swimming together. After the downtime, the boat would move farther in order to catch their next uptime. After a while since the waters were really getting choppy, we decided to come back inside. My head was starting to hurt. I wasn't normally seasick but this was different. Maybe because I can really see the big waves and how the boat would suddenly drop after the wave passed. Most of the people there were also starting to get nauseous. Anyway, after an hour or so "whale watching", we headed back to the harbour. I was just wishing that we could get to calmer waters immediately since I was really focusing hard not to throw up. I thought that it was just me but Kenny said he felt the same.
When we got to darling harbour again, we first sat on a bench to get our bearings straight. It was a fun experience and I'm glad we did it. But it's like something that you wouldn't want to do again hehe. Like once is enough. So after some time, we headed back home and rested because we still had bible study that night. Here's to celebrating experience-filled birthdays!
After the boat arrived, the people started to board and get settled. The boat had two levels, thankfully, since I didn't really know what kind of boat we were going to have. There are those operators that only had motor boats to go whale watching with but I'm not sure if I'll survive in that. The first few minutes inside the boat, the tour guide "Biggles" introduced himself, the other staff, and gave us a bird's eye view of what we can expect and what we couldn't. He was explaining about the whales being migratory this time of the year, their breeding patterns and stuff.
So after a while they started to let us get our food from the buffet table (yes there is a buffet table!) and make our way back to where we were seated. It was a good thing that they served lunch earlier into the trip because the waves were still a lot calmer. After eating, we went outside to see the waves and views since we are also passing by some of the nicer views of the city.
Two hours into the trip and Biggles said we are now heading out to the Tasman sea. The waves are now getting rougher. He also said that we can now expect to see some whales so we got observant. He was saying that as whales swim they have an uptime (when they breathe) and a downtime (when they swim ahead). The signal of the uptime would be the splash of water coming from the wales that actually looked like a geyser and the signal of the downtime would be when they show their tails. We didn't have pictures of the whales since I just wanted to really experience it without the distraction of a camera besides the operator said they'll post pictures on FB. It was exciting when we first saw them. There were two whales which we spotted swimming together. After the downtime, the boat would move farther in order to catch their next uptime. After a while since the waters were really getting choppy, we decided to come back inside. My head was starting to hurt. I wasn't normally seasick but this was different. Maybe because I can really see the big waves and how the boat would suddenly drop after the wave passed. Most of the people there were also starting to get nauseous. Anyway, after an hour or so "whale watching", we headed back to the harbour. I was just wishing that we could get to calmer waters immediately since I was really focusing hard not to throw up. I thought that it was just me but Kenny said he felt the same.
When we got to darling harbour again, we first sat on a bench to get our bearings straight. It was a fun experience and I'm glad we did it. But it's like something that you wouldn't want to do again hehe. Like once is enough. So after some time, we headed back home and rested because we still had bible study that night. Here's to celebrating experience-filled birthdays!
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