Whalewatching day!!
Anyone who's spoken to me in the last few months probably noticed that my pre-Canada excitement always doubled and my grin got bigger when I talked about the whalewatching trip we'd planned for today. Safe to say the prospect of seeing some of the various species of whale they get near the Saguenay Fjord was something I was pretty keen on.
We had an early start, getting to Hotel Tadoussac for 7.50 to pick up our tickets, then took the shuttle bus further down into the harbour. We'd wrapped up pretty warm we thought, and felt well prepared, and then everyone had to put on some rather fetching thick waterproof overalls too. Wrapped up like a couple of michelin men, we then boarded the boat that would take us bouncing over the waves and into the middle of the river (one of the world's widest, our guide Michel told us).
Stu was unconvinced by the outfits. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were worried we'd get too hot. Boy were we wrong?! Doing 25 knots in the middle of a huge river in Quebec...quite chilly! I had a t-shirt, a hooded fleece and a waterproof jacket under my overalls as well as 2 pairs of trousers, gloves and a woolly hat. I ended up with the hat and all three hoods all pulled up. Brrr!
We've been on a couple of dolphin 'seafaris' in the Algarve before and saw nothing, so we headed down to the 3-hour boat trip with high hopes but low expectations in case we were disappointed. We needn't have worried. Within minutes of leaving the shore, our guide pointed out a group of beluga whales! Belugas are the only whales in the St Lawrence river that stay for the winter. While the rest head south to the Caribbean to mate and give birth, the belugas stay put. Off to a good start then.
A little while and some getting splashed with salty water later, we found a couple of minke whales, which we watched for ages as they broke the surface of the water coming up for air, showed us their distictive dorsal fins and then dived again. One came right up to the boat and then swam under it! Amazing.
Off we went again, further out into the river, going at top speed. All the boats keep in contact so they know where the animals are, so I figured our captain and guide must have had a tip-off that there was something good out there. When we reached the spot it was better than we could possibly have imagined - a blue whale! Yep, the biggest creature ever to have lived on the planet, and we saw one. It came up for air a couple of times, and then dived underwater again, giving us a fantastic view of its enormous tail. Wow.
Unfortunately our 3 hours were drawing to a close and we'd come a long way from Tadoussac bay, so we couldn't stay to watch him any longer. What a shame. Still, it was an amazing sight and we'd been very lucky to see 3 different species up close. Awesome.
We ditched the overalls and headed into a cafe to warm up with some hot drinks and review our photos. Then we visited the really good exhibition at the CIMM (centre d'interpretation des mammiferes marins) and watched some lovely underwater whale footage, heard recordings of whale songs, and saw some whale skeletons and bones. Cool.
We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed down to Point de l'islet, the most southerly point of Tadoussac bay. We'd heard we might see more whales from the shore. Unconvinced, we headed down there anyway as it looked like a pretty walk over some nice rocks, with views up the fjord. A crowd of people had already gathered, and we were able to sit on the shore and observe a couple of minke whales feeding in the evening sunlight. What an awesome sight. Even without the addition of fantastic wildlife, this is a beautiful place, but watching the whales so close to the shore was just amazing. After a couple of hours watching the minke whales we finally headed back to our hotel - we'd been out for nearly 12 hours - I've never worn a woolly hat so long! It was getting cold and dark and we thought we should head back and think about dinner.
Phew, what an awesome day. So pleased we got to see everything we did and such a magical place. Yippee! I urge everyone reading this to visit Tadoussac some day, you won't regret it!
Dx
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