Day 38 - Fin Whale Blowhole Spout Show

During the night Jackie hit me hard several times because I was allegedly snoring too loudly. This caused an argument & a disturbed night’s sleep. The alarm went off at 7am.

I got up, made 2 mugs of coffee, then we sprang into action. The sleeping bags, airbeds and even the tent were all expertly folded & fitted in their respective bags. Our packing and loading of the car went like clockwork & we managed to find time for a shower & breakfast - coffee & Choco pains.

Just after 10am we rolled out of Endai Campsite. It was the best campsite we have ever stayed at especially the individual grassy terraced pitches, the friendly staff & the on site cafe & shop. One amusing, but probably accurate online review described the campsite as being like ‘grandma’s garden’, I guess it was the hydrangeas. We definitely hope to return in the not too distant future.

An hour and a half later, we arrived at Bilbao Ferry Terminal & quickly boarded Brittany Ferries Galicia ferry. It probably had something to do with the fact there were only 260 passengers on this crossing when the ferry has a passenger capacity of 1,015. We dumped our bags in our Cabin 7125 & took to the upper deck as we sailed out of the harbour.

Sadly it was a too windy and overcast to justify sitting outside all afternoon, so less than an hour later we were back in our cabin making & eating pate baguettes from the mountain of food and wine we brought on board with us.

I then came over all weary & retired to my bunk bed for a siesta, whilst Jackie bought some expensive Clarins ‘bargains’ in the duty free shop.

We didn’t drag ourselves out of our cabin until 7.15pm & then kicked ourselves that we were missing out on a beautiful sunny evening in the middle of the Bay of Biscay. Almost straight away we bumped into the very same Orca Watcher, so I took the opportunity to ask if we had missed anything. I was relieved that we hadn’t, but he said that we may see whales in about an hour’s time, when the sea gets shallower. We sat back with a glass of wine and waited. He was wrong……….it was an hour and 20 minutes later.

Granted they were quite a long way away, but we were treated to a show of 8 metre high spouts of sea water at the back of the boat for about 15 minutes. I took some cracking photos as can be seen below.

Mr Orca Watcher informed us that the spouts were from a pod of Fin Whales, the world’s 2nd largest species of whale measuring up to 28 metres in length.

It was a nice end to the evening.

Song of the Day : Like Clockwork by The Boomtown Rats.Read more