Caledonian Sky - Day 1

Slept well, awoke early but a quick read of my book and I nodded off again for another couple of hours. 7am and the captain gets on the loud speaker, ‘sorry to get you all up early but there’s an infestation…. of whales on the starboard side! Had cringed at the thought of perhaps having to be loved in our room for the rest of the cruise!!!

But no - we spent the next several hours stooging along and watching whales galore! Small ships such as this one “Caledonian Sky’ can easily manoeuvre around so we circled and watched whales for quite a while - magnificent! Took about 60-70 photos I think but culled it right back to half a dozen of the best.

After our ‘whale watching’ the ship sailed into Talbot Bay and headed towards the ‘Horizontal Falls’.

Not sure where to start here but this huge inland bay area known as Talbot Bay has only one inlet/outlet area and that area is only approx 20 metres wide. The area is renowned for huge tidal changes due to the continental shelf rising up suddenly onto a large plateau and creating huge 6 - 10m tidal variations dependent on the moon phase.

As such at each change of tide this narrow gap allows water to surge in or out at an enormous rate and volume and thereby creating it’s own horizontal flow of water known as the Horizontal Falls.

All our fellow passengers including ourselves were divided into groups and positioned onto the ‘Zodiac Boats’ for an amazing speedboat trip in and around Talbot Bay. Some amazing rock formations in the area gave us an insight into rock and cliff activity that has taken place over the last 18 billion years it has been aged at, and wowed us with it’s awe and beauty of the whole environment. Photos just do not do justice to the area.

After our ‘Zodiac’ cruise we were then escorted onto ‘Fast Boats’ - this then became the most exhilarating speedboat ride I have ever had!!! Wow!!!! We were taken at speed 3 or 4 times in and over these horizontal falls with all the bumps and jumps that come with riding fast flowing rapids and what an experience!!! Kemm and I both describe it as exhilarating!!! So much fun and wow!!! The narrow falls the early groups had been through 3 or 4 times but the variation of height between the low and high level of water in 2 different lake areas was too extreme for our boat being the last of the day to travel through as it was too dangerous. But even so, what and amazing experience - I would love to just jump back in that boat now and go and do it all again - one might say we were ‘pumped’!!!

So it was back on board to on deck afternoon sunset drinks and music followed by dinner and bed, ready for another day.