Whale success!

Whale of a time! https://photos.app.goo.gl/FoShuECpDSEr132x7

From Churchpoint we drove up to Digby yesterday and stopped to admire the view of Digby waterfront by the Tourist Information office.  With hindsight we should not have read all the information boards about 15m tides in the Bay of Fundy but gone straight into the tourist information office because, when we eventually got in there to ask about whale watching tours and suitable campgrounds, it appeared that finding a whale watching trip wasn't going to be as easy as we had imagined.  Mid June is considered very early season and a lot of attractions and facilities just aren't operating. The lady behind the counter phoned around and told us that the nearest whale watching boat would be leaving at 1pm from Tiverton, East Ferry, Digby Neck (see location map with above photo album.  And there wouldn't be one at all tomorrow (today).  So the boat owners asked us to make a dash for it (12 noon was the time when this was being negotiated)_We had a 45mins drive down Digby neck to reach East ferry by 12.30.  We arrived to see the ferry just reaching the opposite side at 12.45.  The whale watching boat negotiated with the ferry which came back for us (normally only 1 an hour) so, miraculously, by 1.15 we were on the whale watching boat with a family of 6 who had driven from Toronto and 4 female students from various Canadian universities.

The sea was amazingly calm but there was quite a chill breeze.  After 1 1/2hrs straight 'out' the crew almost turned back as all we had seen were a few sea birds and the tail of a harbour porpoise. Actually they didn't turn back because they received a radio message from another boat saying that it had passed some whales 45 mins further on.  Sure enough eventually we came into an area where there must have been about 10 huge humpbacked whales and some attending white sided dolphins. We had about 1/2 hr with these animals and it was 'awesome'.   The dolphins were incredibly difficult to photograph, they were much too quick and most of the shots of them are just splashes!  The whales moved much more slowly but spouted very unpredictably so we didn't manage to photograph a spout either. They didn't always wave their tales in the air either. The crew kept saying it would be marvellous for us if a whale stuck its head out of the water, however briefly, but none of them did.  They were very busy feeding (they are filter feeders).  A couple of seals came along too.  Then it was time to turn for shore, and reaching it took us until 6.15!  A very long afternoon but entirely worth it.  I was particularly grateful that the sea was not at all nausea inducing and that we had had time in the ferry queue to put on some extra layers of clothing and to grab a quick sandwich and a box of biscuits!

The nearest (and only) campground was at Whale Cove a few minutes from East Ferry on the mainland.  This was a very quirky place with a huge collection of bits and pieces and some home made models for campers to look at in a rec room.  Also two very friendly and fluffy ginger cats.  And a totally unique line in movable fire pits made from old lawn mowers and washing machine drums.

This morning Steve had an 'Oh dear, what can the matter be?' experience when the door lock jammed on the shower room he was using.  (We use campsite showers when we can as it saves us lpg gas and we're not sure how long the onboard gas is going to last - when it runs out we'll have to find a refilling station as the tank is built into the vehicle).  Fortunately the campsite owner heard Steve banging and managed to release him with the aid of a hammer and screwdriver.  The shower room was built of breeze blocks and had no window and the switch for a very noisy fan also controlled the light.  So Steve had to opt for total darkness in order for his banging on the door to be more likely to be heard.  I could only hear a muffled drumming sound which I assumed was some sort of work going on but I had reached the stage of going to investigate because he had been such a long time.

We had time for a walk down to Whale Cove itself.  It is small and rather run down.  It had a very large fishing industry in the past but today there were only 2 fishing boats tied up at the wharf.

On the way back to Digby we stopped at Sandy Cove where we had our first experience of 'fog', more of a sea mist today.

Tonight we are parked up near Annapolis Royal where we went round some historical gardens and drove past Canada's only tidal power plant to reach our site. Once again we are too early in the season for swimming pool or cafe...

Thank you to those of you who have left us a comment, it's nice to get some feedback.