A Whale of A Time
Don't just take photographs... swim with the world's largest mammals
BY GRAHAM HOLLIDAY

When it comes to encountering whales in the wild, most of us are content to glimpse them through binoculars on a whale-spotting cruise or from a vantage point onshore.

But more adventurous nature lovers are heading for the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga, where you can actually swim with some of the world's largest mammals.

Whaleswim Adventures, tel: (64-9) 372 7073, run six-, seven- and nine-day tours that feature opportunities to swim with humpback whales off the island of Vaka'eitu, near Vava'u in Tonga's north. To minimize environmental impact, each tour has a limit of 12 people, of whom only four (plus a qualified marine researcher-cum-guide) are allowed in the water at any one time.

Between July and October every year, humpbacks migrate from Antarctica to the 171-island archipelago to give birth and nurse their calves—and Whaleswim tours make straight for the nurseries. "It's a truly life-changing experience to watch a young, 12-m calf suckling its 40-m mother just meters away," says Rae Gill, Whaleswim's tour director. "The trust these wild animals have in us is humbling in itself. I know of no other wild animals that allow this." Tours start from $1,752.

Northern Exposure
BY GRAHAM HOLLIDAY

Few people visit Britain's northernmost specks of rock—the Muckle Flugga and the Out Stack. But even if their irresistible, Tolkienesque names aren't enough to lure you there, the tours run by Jonathan Wills should. The wildlife expert escorts boatloads of visitors around the 100-plus islands that make up the Shetland archipelago (the aforementioned pair included). His daylong Top of Britain cruise departs from another delightfully named island—Yell—and is a big crowd puller, with seal and seabird encounters aplenty as it slices through the bracing North Atlantic waters. "On every trip, I've shown visitors tens of thousands of seabirds and dozens of seals at very close range," says Wills. "Shetland is one of the best places in the world to see big seabird colonies."

Another cruise takes in the islands of Bressay and Noss—a nature reserve with a population of some 20,000 gannets, 40,000 guillemots, 5,000 kittiwakes, 4,000 puffins and hundreds of razorbills, shags and great skuas. And roughing it is definitely not on the itinerary: crew members aboard the 12-m vessel, the Dunter 3, serve a champagne lunch, complete with Shetland-grown strawberries, salad from Wills' own garden, and smoked mackerel and marinated herring from the locally famous Shetland Smokehouse. For more information, visit www.seabirds-and-seals.com

©2004Graham Holliday

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