Now is the time as winter draws to an end to make sure you don’t miss out on the one of the greatest productions on earth and just imagine it’s scot free, no bookings required!
The migrating whales are still here and if you live on the Garden Route, there is absolutely every chance of seeing them.
Who better to give us the lowdown on the whales and where to find them than Travel Bug Rose who is a social media marketer, travel blogger and influencer based in the Garden Route.
It would be fair to say that if there are spectacular sightings of whales, then Rose knows about them.
“Most of what I do is driven by my own curiosity. Growing up, my mother instilled the love of travelling in me and we were lucky enough to cover Southern Africa in length and breadth,” says Rose.
“I come from a family that loves history and nature — so it’s second nature for me to find birds, back roads and explore.”
Travel Bug has been following whales for many years.
“It all started years ago when as a dive master, I was leading a dive in Ponta Du Ouro, Mozambique, while working for Simply Scuba.
“On this particular dive I had to do a negative buoyancy entry, the water looked like pea soup and you could hardly see your hand in front your face.
“I took the plunge and anchored myself on the sandy bottom and waited for the other divers to make their descents.
“Sitting in the gloomy water was eerie ... but then I heard the whale song.
“I knew immediately what it was, it felt like it was only meters away, but I couldn’t see a thing.
“All I could do was sit and listen. This memory stuck with me.”
In 2014, Rose met Evelyn Pepler of Ocean Odyssey, which is one of best known whale-watching boat operations in the country.
“She asked me to start doing their social media.
“To be honest, I didn’t know much about whales back then but I was thrilled to think I could talk about whales and I started reading everything about whales and listening to those that had more knowledge than my own.
“I soaked it up like a brand new sponge,” she says.
Travel Bug has let this curiosity lead her and people like Garden Route nature guide Mark Dixon have been part of this journey.
“I have been lucky to also fly with the microlight pilots from time to time, and most recently I spent some time with Jay van Deventer in his glider plane.
“We covered the coastline between Wilderness and Knysna. Wow, what an amazing experience as we saw about three southern right whales, one with a calf and an enormous Humpback whale close to the Knysna Heads.”
So where are Rose’s best vantage points once you are armed with binoculars and a camera?
She recommends Witsand (Southern Right Whale nursery) for “incredible” sightings’.
Then there’s Fransmanshoek near Mossel Bay, Groot Brak, Wilderness, Dolphin Point, Klein Krantz and the Views Hotel, Sedgefield at Gericke’s Point and Myoli beach, Brenton on Sea, the Heads and Buffelsbaai in Knysna.
In Plett, you can spot whales from Robberg, the main beach as well as from Keurbooms.
As this week’s column is being written, Wilderness has three Southern Right Whales with calves hanging around, she says.
These calves were born in August in a shallow bay with a sandy bottom and the whales will stay in the area until the babies are about eight metres in length before they head back south to the Antarctic.
According to Rose, the calves grow at an astonishing rate of three centimetres a day.
Travel Bug shares a recent whale story which caused much excitement on social media.
“What an extremely exciting day we had. It started with a message from Jeff Ayliffe.
“The message went something like this ... ‘Rose, we just had some drama go down behind the breakers. It looks like a great white shark took out a baby Southern Right whale! It breached with such force.’”
She jumped in her car and dashed to the spot.
“On arrival, I was expecting to see blood and gore floating in the ocean.
“Instead, the water was clear and blue. Jeff took the initiative to contact Mark, who in return contacted Roxy Blum @dronegirlwilderness.
“We could see mom, but no baby. Roxy didn’t waste any time to start up her drone (even in the 22km wind) and flew it out to see what awaited us.
“It was with pure delight that Roxy exclaimed the baby was alive!
“We all piled around the tiny screen to see a brand new Southern Right calf hanging around mom happily. And how super cute it was,” Rose says.
What had happened was the shark ate the afterbirth and Dixon also explained that a Southern Right mom excretes a cloud of whale poop to disguise the birth.
Tourists, both international and domestic, visit Plett to see whales.
It was awarded Whale Heritage Site status in June 2023 by the World Cetacean Alliance joining the list of three Whale Heritage Sites in SA, along with The Bluff and Algoa Bay. Only seven sites are fully accredited worldwide.
Dr Gwenith (Gwen) Penry, a Plett-based marine mammal biologist, known as the whale expert, says Plett is home to six whale species and the Cape fur seal.
Her research over the past 20 years has been focused on the South African Bryde’s whale, but she has also researched several species in different countries around the world.
She explains that there are over 100 species of whales and dolphins globally.
In the Southern African region alone, including all the way down to the Prince Edward islands, there are 54 species of whales and dolphins, six of which can be regularly found in Plett.
Plett is well-known for its migratory whale sightings, namely the Southern Right whales and Humpback whales.
The Southern Rights come to Plett’s coastline to socialise and breed. They feed their calves for three to four months before they start to migrate back south to their natural feeding grounds.
The Humpback whales, on the other hand, migrate past Plett’s coastline, swimming up to their breeding grounds around Mozambique and Madagascar.
They can often be spotted in Plett, resting with their calves, while they’re migrating.
And then we have, the Bryde’s whales (Penry says they are her favourite) which live in Plett’s waters all year around.
“They’re fast-moving, and quite shy, so one doesn’t often see them showing off like the Humpbacks,” Penry explains.
“They’re most visible from March to May when they’re feeding on sardines and anchovies.”
To protect the whales, Ocean Odyssey in Knysna, Ocean Safaris and Ocean Blue Adventures in Plett, have whale watching permits which means they are allowed to approach the whales within a 50m radius — all other boats must stay 300m away from the whales.
Penry’s top spots to see dolphins and whales in Plett without going out on a boat are: From Waves car park (near Enricos Restaurant in Keurboom), from Lookout Restaurant (and the whale tail view site just above it), from Robberg Peninsula, the Ski Boat Club (on Plett’s main beach) and Robberg 5.
Find Rose and her adventures on https://youtube.com/@gotravelbug or www.gotravelbug.co.za