Wednesday 8th August

We drove out to Peninsula Valdes with a local guide this morning. This is a protected area which is world famous for its marine wildlife and Patagonian mammals and birds, and featured in the Blue Planet documentary. The main purpose of our visit was whale watching. We took a large inflatable boat, called a Zodiac, out into the bay and very soon encountered the whales. The Southern Right Whales come here to mate and then the calves are born here the following year. We were fortunate enough to be here at that time. After observing the whales from a distance, we came across a mother and calf, that was about one month old, who stayed with us for almost half an hour. It was a remarkable experience seeing them swimming together right beside us, so close we could have touched them. They swam right under the boat and came up and sprayed us with water. This was certainly another highlight of our trip - even the local guide commented what a special encounter with whales we had. We also saw some Patagonian penguins whilst in the bay. We then drove back along the dirt road hugging the coast back to Puerto Madryn, watching the whales off shore as we drove. We stopped at a spot where the whales swim just a few feet from shore at high tide and watched another mother and calf surrounded by seals. We dragged ourselves away again to drive north about 70 km to camp on the beach. It was a great place to camp and to celebrate becoming grandparents! We opened several bottles of Argentinian champagne and toasted baby Isaac with our tin mugs! We went to sleep with the sound of the whales "blowing" as they swam just off the beach - magic!