I have a whale of a time when our big visitors arrive

THERE are some disadvantages to living on a busy main road, as I do. When I arrived in my home 40 years ago I thought I’d made a terrible mistake. The noise of the traffic seemed so loud (after the tranquillity of the Karoo) that I thought I would never have a good night’s sleep again. It also prevented me from enjoying my record collection (this was pre-CD).

It’s amazing what the human brain can do, however, and it wasn’t long before I hardly noticed the noise. My brain had simply filtered out any unwanted sounds. I heard only the crash of the waves on the rocks, the seagulls calling and the sighing of the wind. My music came across loud and clear.

There was also another benefit that is worth more than money can buy to me. I live alongside the whales and they entertain me every season. Sometimes the first inkling I have that the whales are back is that their blowing and hooting wakes me at night. I know of no better way of being woken.

It’s quite a competitive thing here in False Bay, to be the first to see the whales at the end of August.

This season I have felt rather deprived. All my False Bay friends have reported seeing whales and I have missed them every time.

On one occasion I was driving along Boyes Drive when my passenger almost jumped out of the car window shouting “whales!”

By the time I had pulled over and stopped the car there was no sign of the whales. I wondered whether she had actually seen them.

This week, however, I was rewarded by a fullon Whale Spectacular. It was late in the afternoon when I heard that unmistakable organ-pipe sound and there, about 100m from the shoreline, were two whales doing a most spectacular dance.

A crowd gathered along the road below my house, cameras at the ready, while the whales spouted, trumpeted, jumped, stood on their heads and slapped the water with their giant flukes, making a noise like cannon fire.

The whole repertoire, with stereophonic sound in front of a packed audience.

I felt enormously privileged, as I always do when the whales return to False Bay.

They have a strange effect on those who stop to watch them. Couples draw closer to one another and people stay very quiet, as though the whales might be aware of any noise they make.

Suddenly all the woes of our strange country seem far away. Politics and water shortages seem irrelevant and far away for a few moments.

The whales remind us that this planet, with all its wonders, was there long before the humans came on the scene.

I suspect the whales will be there long after we humans have disappeared.

Last Laugh

The village parson was visiting one of his parishioners and congratulated him on his beautiful and very productive vegetable garden.

“It’s amazing what you can do when you work closely with God,” the reverend said.

“Yes, it is,” admitted the villager, “but you should have seen what a mess it was when He had it all to Himself.”