Whale Watching

Observation des Baleines!!

On Saturday, July 21, I went whale watching with the French school. The intent of the excursion is to practice your French. Though admittedly, I just wanted to see the whales, having never done this before. And of course, my opportunity for this in Niger is slim to none!! I did however, end up sitting by one of the school Animateurs, so I did get a fair amount of talking in during the boat ride of about 3 hours.

The excursion left the school at 5:30 am!! Yes, you read this right! I, Kristi, the non-morning person, got out of bed at 4:15 am to go whale watching. Though I did sleep for about 2.5 hours of the bus ride (both ways!).

I had thought that we were doing the whale watching on a boat like this:

But I was actually in a boat like this:

It was a beautiful day! The sun was shining and the breeze on the river was refreshing. We started in a town called Tadoussac, which is located near the fjords where the whales live. Right now there are a few whales that live in the river year-round. But in August quite a few types migrate through. We saw two types of whales, one our tour guide indicated was a "mini-whale" and the other was a "sea-whale". Both were black to me! We also saw a few seals.

Though I knew we were on the St. Lawrence River, it looked like the ocean to me! It was impossible to see to the other side, though it was a bit hazy that day. It also smelled like the ocean which we all found interesting. I did not get to see a lighthouse though, as there are special boat captains who bring the boats up the river, the river is not too deep and one needs to know exactly where to go.

Each town along the river had a church down close to the water and I also saw many sailboats out too.

Well, as they say in French, À Bientôt! Kristi