As on every safari, one can never be guaranteed as to what you might see once you get out on the open ocean.
Our trip launched soon after 10h30 and within the first ten minutes out on the water we spotted our first Southern Right Whales. They were really relaxed and almost somewhat shy, I’d say. These whales can easily be identified by their callosities at the fact that they do not have a dorsal fin. They come to our waters to mate and give birth. On average these whales can grow up to 15m in length and way a few tons.
After spending some time with the whales we spotted a group of three indo-pacific Humpback dolphins, very close to the shore line close to Uilenkraalsmond, a holiday resort well known to visitors from Cape Town during our summer school holiday.
We headed off to Pearly Beach in search of more whales and we weren’t let down. Our guest on board got to see two more whales, definitely more of a show off than the first two whales. As soon as we arrived in Shark Alley, the strip of sea between Geyser Rock and Dyer Island we were welcomed by a colony of Cape fur seals. The piece of wood visible on the island is from a wrecked ship. On Dyer Island we managed to point out two African Penguins to every on board the Dream Catcher.
The Dyer Island ecosystem is also a bird lover’s paradise, spotting birds such as the Yellow nosed Albatrosses and a single Oystercatcher is always a treat! As we got to the end of our Marine Big 5 trip we made our last stop at Slashfin, a shark cage diving vessel belonging to Marine Dynamics shark tours, to see a Great White shark.
It was definitely a wonder whale watching trip.
