WHALES AT FALSE BAY

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WHALES AT FALSE BAY
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"What makes being in Cape Town so special is that there are so many interesting but very different things going on all the time, like the day the whales came to False Bay..."

It was a beautiful Thursday evening in South Africa’s mother city….Cape Town.

What better way to spend it than to drive along the coastal road, past Muizenberg, Kalk Bay and Simons Town en route to the famous Cape Point Nature Reserve to watch the sun set.

Passing Kalk Bay, I noticed people gathering on the sidewalk, staring and pointing frantically out to sea. My natural inquisitive instinct kicked in and I sharply mount the kerb and hop out of my car.

To my delight, the whole of False Bay was littered with calving Southern Right Whales lolling and frolicking only 50m from the shore! Instinctively, I whipped out my trusty camera (which by now was like a Siamese twin to me) and began shooting immediately.

Hours seemed to pass like seconds as I admired the sheer power and beauty of these ancient and wise aquatic giants. A hushed “woooowww” emanated from the crowd as one of the whales lifted its enormous tail high up into the air and ‘sailed’ (it is thought that whales do this to save energy, and literally sail using their tail fin to catch the wind.)

As the light disappeared I felt honoured to have witnessed this truly spectacular event, which seems to put you in your rightful earthly place and makes you realise enormity of unexplained and mysterious life that we take for granted on this magnificent planet of ours.

And we think we are superior?