Route: Whale watching excursion
Area: La Gomera
Date of walk: 7th February 2016
Walkers: Andrew and Gilly
Distance: n/a
Weather: increasingly hot and sunny
Today’s ‘walk’ only involved a short stroll along the seafront at Playa Santiago, but it provides a pretext for adding photos of a wonderful whale watching excursion. We’d been walking for the last 5 days so felt no guilt in having a rest day, and what better to do than go in search of whales and dolphins which are known to frequent the waters around La Gomera
We’d already booked 2 tickets with Tina Excursiones who had been recommended to us for their expertise in locating cetaceans, and turned up on the quayside at the appointed hour. We set out to sea and within 20 minutes or so there were shouts of excitement as an Atlantic Spotted Dolphin was spotted. Excitement increased as more and more came into view and within a few minutes the boat was surrounded by dozens of these wonderful creatures
The boat then headed further out to sea. There were 3 ‘spotters’ on board armed with powerful binoculars and after a while another shout went up as a pilot whale was spotted. The boat moved closer to what turned out to be a pod of whales and for 20 minutes or so they swam alongside us
The boat then moored in a quiet cove. Grilled tuna and salad was provided along with sangria, and we returned to the port along the rocky coastline. It was a great excursion which I’d highly recommend to anyone visiting La Gomera
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Dawn from our hotel and somewhere out there are the whales and dolphins we hope to see later on
A little later, at Playa Santiago, waiting for our boat to come in
Here it comes
The extent of today’s walk - a stroll round the quayside to the ‘Tina’, top right of photo
Playa Santiago
We board the boat
20 minutes later - dolphin!
The spots confirm that these are Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
Our spotters looking out for whales
Well spotted! A pilot whale
The boat then heads inland and we sail along the rocky coastline
Mount Teide in Tenerife in the distance
Looking along one of the barrancos which are typical of the island
We pass by our hotel room
Back to port after a wonderful 4 hour excursion
