Whale watching cruise
On Saturday, I went with the Scientist and my friend, K, to do a whale watching cruise. We got to Fremantle early so went to the E-Shed Markets, across from the ferry terminal. My friend got a drink and a cake so we sat around for a little while before finding our way across the parking lot. Once our vouchers were processed we waited around outside to board the boat. Oddly, the boat we were travelling on was from a different company than we purchased our tickets. A few minutes before departure we were allowed to board and found our way downstairs to find a seat. Even docked, the boat was rocking a fair bit. Once the tour started, the boat was rocking and rolling while travelling at full speed across some choppy water.
After travelling for 20 minutes or so, the boat slowed a bit as it entered the path of the whales. We continued to cruise along for a while longer before some whales were spotted. Soon we had stopped and all moved outside to the upper deck to view the whales. It wasn’t a full boat but the people there were almost all crowded at the front and seeing much was difficult. On top of that, the boat was rolling around quite a bit which made it difficult to do much more than hold on. There was another boat nearby that seemed to be rocking and rolling even more than ours was.
I did see some whales but wasn’t able to take any photos from where I was. I eventually moved to the back of the boat where there was space to hold on to the side and watch. The view wasn’t ideal but it was possible to see some activity and I did get a few photos with slight evidence of the whales’ appearance in them. I think we may have been lucky to see anything with the water being so rough that day.
Eventually the staff asked everyone to return to the seating area so the boat could return to the harbor and we went downstairs again. I had been feeling seasick pretty much from the moment I stepped on the boat, despite having taken Stemzine for motion problems before we started out. I can just hope the medication reduced the effects for me. I think I was faring better than some of the other passengers and I was thankful I hadn’t eaten or drunk much before the cruise. Fortunately I recovered considerably once on solid ground again.
We were quite hungry by this point so had an early dinner and finished off with a visit to San Churro’s Chocolateria for dessert. I had a hot chocolate with chilli in it along with a couple churros and chocolate. All very yummy and satisfying. Fremantle wasn’t particularly crowded, which was surprising since it was the first day of the Fremantle Festival that runs for the next couple weeks, I think.
We probably wouldn’t do this particular cruise again as it’s pretty expensive usually and there’s always a chance you won’t see anything. We might do as well to do a trip to Rottnest Island and take a chance on seeing whales along the way.
