I was blowing like a beached whale by the time I arrived at Wilson’s Wharf this week, after going to the wrong area for my first trip out to sea.
Fortunately, my hosts, Peter Shore and Francois van Buuren of Advantage Tours, had kindly delayed departure from 7.30am to 8am for our cruise to see the whales that pass Durban at this time of year.
Whale-watching is new to Durban and is more commonly associated with the Cape coast, in particular Hermanus, so I was excited to be out at sea along with seven other guests to lay eyes on one of the biggest creatures on the planet, the enormous humpback whale, which can weigh up to 45 tons.
Van Buuren is a former Eastern Transvaal Falcons rugby player, but he says his first encounter with whales so impressed him that he quit a rugby career to dedicate his life to these gentle giants.
The warm temperatures of the Indian Ocean are perfect for the young breeders, he said.
The swell was initially small and smooth, but as we ventured further into the open ocean – about 10km – the sea started to make us do some “salsa dancing” as we held on to the safety bars at regular intervals.
The waves hitting the boat and the vessel climbing and dropping left me with a tingling sensation. Perhaps they were butterflies in my tummy.
Twelve-year-old Andra Popa, a visitor from Johannesburg who was also on her first “out at sea” experience, said she had similar sensations.
But soon I found that the sea can be very soothing. I began to feel at ease with the surroundings, and so did the guests, who were having a great time searching for the elusive giants.
With no signs of birds (out at sea they follow the whales) for a prolonged period, it seemed we would return to shore without spotting any whales. But in the distance, about 400m away, the first spray into the sky was seen as a whale exhaled after a deep dive.
Everyone on board was relieved and excited as Van Buuren shouted “over there” and Shore steered towards the whales. We spotted 15 humpback whales, but none of the lazy mammals cared to perform their much-celebrated “whale song” or leap out of the water.
They dragged us further out to sea, keeping us guessing for prolonged periods as they flapped their tails and disappeared into the ocean. This left the children with gigantic smiles. You may see the whales for barely a second, but the memory lasts a lifetime.
Of the Murray family of four from Pietermaritzburg, who had woken up at 5am to see the whales, Cohen, 5, and Hayley, 10, were first-time whale-watchers, smiling from ear-to-ear for the whole trip. For Hayley, the reigning Under-9 swimming champion at her school, the adventure was “wonderful”.
Their father, Scott, who was on his sixth whale-watching trip, said: “It felt so good today, probably because I have my children here.” Being a fishing fanatic, nature lover and patriot, he said the trip gave his family an opportunity to bond and instil a sense of being proudly South African.
Whales begin breeding in their mid-teens and can live to 90 years or more, so making for a very full and active sex life.
Van Buuren said the humpbacks spent a lot of the year in the Antarctic Ocean before travelling up to southern Africa and along the coast. They swim around Madagascar and then return down the coast and back to the Antarctic via the Cape coast.
On their travels they are led by one individual, usually a female. En route, the whales breed and gang-up to hunt plankton and krill, which they consume in huge quantities. The leader may be many kilometres in front of the pod, but whales usually swim in pairs.
Off the whale route in shallow waters, if a cow has recently given birth to a calf, she will not swim with the rest of the pod. Much like women on maternity leave, they isolate themselves from society to care for their young. Three to four years will pass before the cow is ready for another calf, and as a result, they stay away from the bulls.
The calf at birth weighs a staggering 700kg. Furthermore, the greedy little devil will consume up to 40 litres of milk every two hours from her 45-ton mother. In about six months, the calf will weigh four tons. The cow of 45 tons before birth will lose almost half her body mass in a year, when she will scale down to a svelte 25 tons.
Van Buuren, who became involved with whale-watching when he was visiting the family’s whale-watching operation at St Lucia, said they made such an impression on him that he gave up visions of rugby glory and never went back to Pretoria.
“I fell in love with whales,” he simply said.
Young Andra Popa, unfazed by the cold, said: “I thought I would get seasick, but it was quite fun. I was expecting to see some dolphins, but it did not happen… If you are looking for adventure you must come.”
Whale-watching is not exclusive to the Cape – we’ve got it here on the East Coast and the experience is a lot warmer!
l For more information, see www.advantagetours.co.za - The Independent on Saturday