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Catherine Strong travelled on our 'Dominican Republic - Swimming with Humpbacks!' holiday and submitted this entry to our writing competition.
Humpback Whale by Tarmo Haehnsen
Swimming with Humpback Whales
Nothing prepares you for the reality of being in the water with a 30-tonne whale. I’ve watched a lot of whales, in a lot of places and always marvelled, somewhat spellbound, at their size, grace, and mystique. As soon as I entered the water on our March ‘Dominican Republic - Swimming with Humpbacks’ tour, and saw the vast outline of a whale for the first time (I will remember the date - Sunday 16th March), only metres in front of me in the water, I knew I had never REALLY seen a whale before - only bits of them, fragments of their lives and forms glimpsed at the surface ... nothing more than the ‘tip of a whale’ iceberg. It is only once I was in the water, watching that impossibly huge shape come to life, animate, change gear and direction, and interact with other creatures (including me) that I realised: NOW I have seen a whale.
The stand-out feature of this holiday is the sheer number and quality of close encounters that are possible with whales in the water. We had the option to swim with whales up to five times each half-day trip out, and on top of that enjoyed superb whale-watching from our boats as groups of between one and five whales swam around us: mothers and calves; mother-calf-escort trios; rowdy groups!
Safety is the number one priority and our local guides took all the time necessary to establish what whales were in the water around us and what state they were in - we searched in particular for mother-calf pairs, where the mother was resting and the calf coming up to breathe. Once it was established that the whales were suitable candidates for us to swim with, our guides would get in, swim towards the whale(s), and then signal to us to get in. From that point on, it was time to swim, watch and wonder. It is not easy to pinch yourself whilst swimming in a wetsuit, otherwise I would have been doing so all the time - it is a truly extraordinary experience to find yourself next to an animated 1-tonne calf which is rolling around and slapping its pectoral fins in the water nearby, swimming with three whales through parallel coral heads as if in a Jacques Cousteau film, or being eyed up square-on at very close quarters by a Humpback mother. Though very very close at times (my nearest encounter was probably only 3 feet away) I never felt in any danger from these benevolent and stately mammals; it was clear right from our first swim that they meant us no harm!
You do not need to go into space, or re-create a dinosaur to get a truly out-of-this-world experience - just visit the Silver Bank in winter and swim with the Humpbacks which grace the shallow ocean there each year. It’s as beautiful an experience as it is intense. And it will remain intense, and nourish you, long after you have returned home.
Read more about our 'Dominican Republic - Swimming with Humpbacks!' holiday.