Final day whale watching; the time has flown by. Today dawned clear bright but windy which is their normal weather and a relief to the camp owners as they rely on wind and solar power and after the calm cloudy conditions of the last couple of days had run out of power and had to use a generator!
Our morning whale watching was incredible - after a choppy and wet ride to the whale watching area - we dried out in the sun and at one time were surrounded by 5 whales rolling, going under the boat putting their heads up lying on their backs and blowing bubbles. They seemed to make a beeline for the boats - it was incredible behaviour to watch. In both the morning and the afternoon we had long encounters with mothers and very friendly babies. A couple rubbed the whales so much the whale lice became attached to them but were rapidly shaken off!
The afternoon boat ride to the whales included a boat drag by the captain and the guide as the tide was really low and our route to the deep channel was in inches of water. The upside was watching the mass of bird life on the shoreline and watching the coyotes patrolling the beach and mudflats looking for tasty morcels.
The lunch time presentation was on simple photography tips and the evening talks were from Maldo on the power generation in the camp and their eco credentials, as everything is recycled and finally we had photographic reflections on the week from Mark.
A great end to an informative and interesting week - we all now want to sign up for the next festival, this time of bears in Sept 2015!
(Today's photo was taken as a baby whale emerged through the water right beside us - you could clearly see his open eye - who is looking at who?)