Whales

I went on a “whale safari” with a few colleagues last week. There are often whales and dolphins in the lagoon, but not this day, so we went right out of the lagoon and up to the north of the island. The trip itself took about an hour and a half by reinforced speed-dinghy. Once there, we saw a couple of dolphins, who took fright and disappeared. We carried on a bit and managed to find a whale and her little one, who weren’t doing spectacular jumps but were showing themselves a bit. I took as many photos as I could. The first ones were just splashes, then I got a few photos of something between Jaws and the Loch Ness Monster, the odd blurry fin above the water’s surface.

Whales are around from July to October, so the end of September wasn’t the best time. Most people go on a whale safari every time they come to Mayotte, and sometimes don’t see anything at all, so this one wasn’t bad. They take you out all afternoon, but there’s only about an hour to actually see anything by the time you get there and back. We followed the one whale about for most of the time, as she seemed to be on her own with her little one. You can swim with the whales or dolphins if you like, but the water’s cold outside the lagoon and the waves are too big for me.