Breaching

Since our small sighting at Hermanus, I was content with seeing the tops of whales from half a mile away but that was about to change when a guy at the beach in Plett tipped us off that some whales had been moving around the whole bay on the other side of beacon island all morning.

I ran round to the rocks on the other beach where I could see a few people sitting and I immediately saw them, literally 20 metres off the rocks, popping their backs up.

We followed them for a while, they stayed fairly close. It was amazing watching their backs and fins come out from as close as you would hope to get from a boat. After a while of watching from the rocks by the Beacon Island Hotel it happened. One of them launched itself from the water. I turned towards the sound and quickly took a this photo and couldn't believe it when I looked at the result! I'm unbelievably proud of this one. The breaching happened once more and birds that were feeding off the barnacles that had been knocked from the whales scattered. I got that one as well but it was a smaller jump.

One of the most awesome moments of my life!