The magical songs of the whales
It was a nice summer day in late August. Although the sun was shining bright, we could clearly see the autumn approaching.
The gentle slopes around Ilulissat started to turn into red and yellow, and the birds were busy with collecting the last berries before the cold winter would turn everything into frost.
We were enjoying the view and - as there were no big ocean liners anchoring near the shores - the loneliness at its most. We were completely alone on our hike.
We laid down on a rocky outlet, which provided generous view to the nearby icebergs.
Sometimes we could hear some cracking sound from the icebergs, but since we go regularly on glacier hikes in the Alps, we were accustomed to this sound. In fact, we love this sound.
I guess this was the most relaxing moment of my life.
Humpback whales
Suddenly we heard a strange noise. It was completely unique, yet it sounded somewhat familiar. And again. Then we glimpsed it: three humpback whales were swimming next to the giant icebergs.
They were “talking” just like we saw it in Pixar’s Finding Nemo. As they were reaching the surface they blow the air out of their “nose”, allowing the sun rays reflecting on it like a piece of rainbow above them.
We were stunned. We were staring them with our mouth wide open. We could clearly hear and see them from the hills above Ilulissat - right on the first day of our holiday.
The time was running and since we had an evening kayak tour to come, we had to retrace our steps to the village. Will we ever see them again? - we wondered.
Whale watching from our kayaks
Some hours later we were approaching the icebergs in kayaks when we heard that sound again. We turned our kayaks to the directions of the sound and we glimpsed the humpbacks again.
We could see their blow reflecting the last rays in the sunset. It was magical.
Whales every day
We were extremely lucky on our holiday. We saw them every single day during our 9 day long holiday.
We saw them from the air, they were playing in front of our boat, waving both their fins and tails. Once we even had a chance to see one jumping out of the water.
We could see them sleeping on the surface, they accompanied us to the calving glacier Eqi, but sometimes three of them were swimming synchronized just like they were dancing ballet on the water.
