Silent Whale Tour
Today we had to get up very early to eat our breakfast and head out to the harbour. We are going on a Silent Whale Tour. Silent because the ship is a hybrid catamaran that can switch over to electric engines to not disturb the whales. Whales because we’re going whale watching and tour… well, because it is a whole tour. We learned that since the last few years the whales moved their habitat further and further away from Tromsø. So it used to be a one hour boat ride to get to the place they hung out, now it takes a full four hours of sailing to get to their new bay. This means setting of early in the morning to make the most of the daylight available. Since we are so far up north that the sun doesn’t actually rise during the winter. We have only about four hours of daylight.
As we arrived at breakfast it was surprisingly expansive. Many options from different styles of yoghurt to the english breakfast staples to very delicious bread. But no time to really enjoy it. Get some hardy food, enough coffee to survive the first hour and hurry up to our boat.
After departure we got the safety briefing and s short introduction on how to spot whales. Luckily we already knew that from our trip last year. Leaving the port we got a nice view of Tromsø from the bay and a good feeling for the remoteness of Norway. There were lots of mountains around with small settlements spread around the huge landscape.
Then, when the sun (indirectly) shone on us we got a very special treat. Above the hills we could see upper atmospheric clouds. Those are clouds that rise up so far that the water drops freeze up. As a consequence the sunlight gets refracted in different ways that result in lots of different colours in the sky. You could compare it to an oil slick floating high in the air. It looks very pretty and because the waves still get blown with the wind the colour and patterns change all the time.
Although it was cloudy the weather was still pretty good. We’re still well above a freezing temperature (about 6 degrees Celsius). There was a lot of wind on the open water that did make it a bit chilly though. But the view from the upper decks was worth it.
We arrived and were greeted by two very relaxed Humpback whales. They seemed even a bit curious about our visit. The motors switched over to electric and we could take some pictures. Which was a bit challenging since the very little sunlight that we had available. But the whales were lazily floating around, swam around our boat or even stuck their head out of the water to see what was going on in our world. These gentle giants are still impressive to behold.
Insert picture of Humback Whales here
After about half-an-hour we left them in peace and continues our journey to a different bay. This bay was home to a pod of Orcas (killer whales). It was a small family with some parents and pups and they were very playful. Showing of their big dorsal-fins a just playing and swimming around the boats. Again we took some nice shots of the Orca’s and waved ‘em goodbye after about 20 minutes.
It was time to head back as the sunlight was already fading and we still had quite a journey to our harbour. When we returned the tour had taken quite a toll on our energy. Fending of the wind and trying to hold a camera steady while waves crashed on the bow was quite taxing. So after we were back on solid ground we went to the supermarket for supplies and a get quick bite. There is a great hot-dog stand next to the open air cinema that sells hot-dogs made of beef and reindeer-meat… How could we resist?? We returned to the hotel for a last drink in the bar. Time for some sleep to recharge for our journey to Abisko (Sweden) tomorrow.