Having been convinced that it is not scary to share a story and that you do want “hobbiests” to tell their story, here is my contribution.

Even though I had this whale encounter with a Southern Right Whale almost three years ago, it is still one of my favorite moments of whale watching so far. Apart from the fact that the landscape of Capetown’s suburbs is spectacular, the chances of seeing whales during the right time of the year are quite good. During my stay I was lucky enough to see both Humpback Whales as well as Southern Rights more than on one occasion.

On that particular day, the whales were “just” on the surface, their blowholes to be seen, which I think was already nice by itself. A couple of whales breathed and I heard the captivating, sonorous breathing sound of whales for the first time. But that was not the best part; that was still to come. At some point during this encounter, one of the whales turned its body so that I wasn’t able to see its body from above anymore. I watched this whale and realized that is was watching us. I was just taking in this special moment and appreciated that I was able to see the eye of a whale. I also took a photo, but there really was no hurry. The whale stayed like this for quite a while. It was a very unique experience and retrospectively made me think about what the whale sees the rest of its life – all those unknown parts of the deep sea.

-Mareike