Downside Up

Downside upside downside up …. It’s quite irrelevant to a whale’s watery realm. Meeting George this year in Vava’u, Tonga, was one of the most extraordinary moments of my life and has set things in motion I could never have envisioned. I have already written about George and my first encounter with him in an […]

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Good Things Come In Threes

Or fours, or fives, or … in fact this year has been the most extraordinary adventure for me. I clearly remember these three male humpback whales during my recent visit to Tonga. They were showoffs! How they came close enough to say ‘look at us’ but stayed far enough away to remain aloof. They played […]

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Love Takes All Forms

There is no doubt at all in my mind that there is more here than the instinctual caring for a newborn child. I watched her for a time and was enchanted by the way she nudged and guided and snuggled and swam with her beautiful baby. In those privileged moments I fell in love with […]

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Slipstreaming

Many of our encounters with these beautiful creatures were very fleeting. Despite their size humpback whales are very fast and very agile when they want to be. It is often quite deceptive just how fast they really are moving. This young male, like many others was not interested in spending time lolling on the surface […]

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Scratch My Belly

Like a puppy dog he rolled over and over with joyful abandon. You could almost feel the whale speak, ‘scratch my belly’. There was absolutely no doubt that he loved our attention and we all loved his even if it was a little scary and intimidating at times. Our experience with George off the island […]

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