The fluke

More time passed and although it was a glorious day and we had seen whales, I knew that I wouldn’t be satisfied unless I got to see one that little bit closer. At last, a shout came and we strained to see another speck in the ocean, but then the shouts of “hey – there’s more than one”, “I think there’s a baby” and “there’s definitely at least 4 of them” got us excited and we rushed down to be first on the viewing platform. We had struck gold, there were quite a few large whales and a ‘little’ baby whale (about 8m long). It was such an amazing, spectacular experience that I can’t do it justice by describing it here. They gradually got closer and closer, until baby naughtily came right next to us on the boat, which meant mum had to come and get him – so we got the rare experience of seeing a baby humpback and the mother surface right next to us on the boat!! Then some other whales came past, blowing and making noises, and diving into the water. They are called humpbacks because of the way they dive into the water, they arch (or hump) their backs as they dive, often rolling forward right until their tail sticks out of the water – called the fluke. The fluke shots are pretty impressive, and apparently each whale’s fluke is like a fingerprint, none are identical.