On The Tail Of The Whale

Canada’s Bay of Fundy is the best place in the world to glimpse the endangered North Atlantic right whale. We set sail, hot on its trail…

- Phoebe Smith

The sound was unmistakable: a deep, heavy breathing coming just metres away from where I was lying. My eyes opened fast, only to be greeted by the pitch black of the bedroom. Out of the corner of my eye I could make out the fluttering of fabric – a curtain, floating in the breeze that flowed through the window that I’d left ajar just hours earlier. Then it came again.

Hearing heavy breathing in your hotel room is an unnerving experience – especially when you know for certain you fell asleep alone. But by the third exhalation of breath my sleep-fuddled brain suddenly remembered where I was, and instead of fear, I felt excitement.

“Whales!” came the call from next door. My guide, New Brunswick local Beth Johnston, had been woken by the sound, too. And so it was that, at 2am on an early September morning, I grabbed my coat and hat and ran outside barefoot, standing on top of the cliff where the little cottage in which we were staying, on this small Canadian island known as Campobello, was perched.

With no light other than the faded twinkle of the distant stars, I couldn’t see these great marine mammals passing by, but I could feel them. The water below moved as they navigated through it, their regular blow spraying an invisible mist that I could feel landing on my face and exposed feet. For those few minutes that they passed by, it was utter magic. Without the benefit of sight, all my other senses were heightened, with the smell of the ocean in my nose, the damp grass sucking at my toes and the slow, steady rhythm of the whale’s breath vibrating through my body. That was my first introduction to the whales of Canada’s famous Bay of Fundy. But it wouldn’t be my last.

Thar be whales