We get up close and personal with whales

 

Let me tell you:  you don’t just stumble upon Brier island..  It’s not on the way to anything and it takes two ferries to get there!  So you need to really want to go there.  The reasons we did are:

1) we just like far flung places, where small communities choose to stay and (at least in the case of Brier island) strive.  It’s permanent population is 380, living of fishing and tourism, and looking quite happy about it.

2) It is surrounded by the bay of Fundy, full of  plankton and thus full of whales.  So a great spot for whale watching.

We left Annapolis early enough to stop by the little village of Sandy Cove, known - duh- for its sandy beach along a cove.   It was our first real view of the bay, at low tide.

The ferries runs once an hour ,  on the hour one way, and on the half hour the other way, and cost $7 each (cash only) - that’s what the big board says!  However, it seems to run”whenever there are enough cars” and they don’t bother to collect money. But it is very efficient! And we barely waited at any of the four crossings.

 

We arrived at the tiny town of Westport on Brier island 1 hour before our whale watching trip, giving us just enough time to see just about all of it: Both light houses (one of which has a little house for the light house keeper- you have to really enjoy solitude to apply for that job!), and take the short”bog walk”: It’s a boardwalk above a marched bog, and a lot cooler than it sounds.

Then, we donned our sexy safety suits and embarked on a zodiac for our whale watching tour:  the weather could not have been nicer for it. Sunny, warm, and calm.  It’s got to be a rough trip if the sea is rough or if it’s cold, because even in calm weather, it get windy on the zodiac.

I love this picture Joe  took of me, wind blown and looking to the sea!  The advantage of the zodiac is that you can get much closer to the whales and indeed, we followed a bunch of them for a long time.  

They were so close that, with my little camera, i could not focus far enough away to get a picture of the entire tail.  

But could see the individual barnacles on the tail. We got to recognize the specific whale by the shape of their fin:  

For instance, this is Bungee - easy to tell by the crook on its fin.  They swam right next and under the boat - but that’s hard to caputre in a picture. (The white blur is it’s large side paddle).

They choose not to breach, which would have been even cooler, but we enjoyed the close encounter very much (and they seem to enjoy it too, since they choose to hang around for a long time).  Here are two of them swimming side by side, right next to us  

There were also many birds, including big flocks of these little ones (i don’t know what they are but they were cute) and great northern gannet (not shown because the move too fast. 

On the way back, we stopped for an early dinner on the Harbor in Digby, because, unlike Annapolis, it has actual restaurants!  We choose one with a patio overlooking the harbor, enjoyed the view, the wonderful weather, the good food (Digby scallops -of course!) and drinks.  It was wonderful.

And got us back early enough for another sunset walk in Annapolis Royal, which is objectively very pretty, with it boardwalk on the bay and it’s grand Victorian houses (most of which are now B&B). If only it had restaurants…. Then again, on my walk i noticed not one but 2 vine bars, and a brewery (none of which served food), so the tourists are at least pleasantly sloshed while they search for food…

Here are a few more whale pictures.