Having a whale of a time!

We´ve just returned from 2 days on Argentina´s valdes peninsular and are literally buzzing! We got lucky. Very lucky. We saw 2 orcas (killer whales) and were fortunate enough to see them hunting a sealion by beaching themselves on the shore. For those of you who have seen the David Attenborugh footage of orcas doing this this is what we saw at the only place in the world where this happens! Awesome.









We also got close encounters with southern right whales form a boat trip that we took. They were named right whales by hunters who classed them as being the right whales to hunt on account of the ease with which they could aproach them. In fact, so curious are they that they actually approach the boats. Happily, this now means stunning close-ups for many tourists. Each year between 4 and 600 whales come here to breed and we saw dozens of mothers with their calves. The hardest thing was trying to fit such large animlas into a single photo but as you can see Katherine didn´t do too badly!








We also saw a penguin breeding colony where the half a million penguins come to nest and breed each year. We were lucky enough to be there just as the first of the eggs were hatching! For me the most amazing thing was the level of committment of these birds. Each year they nest with the same partner in the same place. They share the responsibility of protecting the eggs taking it in turn to sit on the nest while the other goes after food. Due to the sheer volume of penguins on the site sometimes the nests are far from the sea meaning for the furthest away a 7 hour walk to the ocean and 2-6 days fishing before the return journey of 7 hours to the nest! Now that is love for the family!