Peninsula Valdes

Day 263 - Peninsula Valdes

Elephant Seal

Generally over the course of our trip, excursions like today have been the simplest and best way to meet people. Today was no exception. The day ended with a dinner and a few drinks with (what I think is a new record) seven other people (oh not to be eating in a restaurant alone again). Included in the group were three clueless but amusing Mancs who regaled tales of malaria tablet induced bad dreams with frightening regularity and a couple, Dan and Vanessa, with whom we´ll leave Puerto Madryn tomorrow.

The trip began with a depressingly dull journey. The quality of roads rendered reading an impossibility and anyone who has travelled to these parts will appreciate just how featureless and monotonous the landscape is. The land is painfully flat (for three hours we didn´t see an undulation let alone a hill) and the same identical shrubs are all you can see. Were it not for the air-conditioning unit constantly leaking on the guys from Manchester, we may even have been forced to attempt the world´s briefest game of "I Spy".

Southern Right Whale

Fortunately, any trips we´ve taken this year to see wildlife have been superb and after our first and second stops, the horrors of the journey were forgotten. While not as close as in Otago, the beaches were filled with sea-lions and elephant seals. Both of these species were predictably lazy but my philospohy when it comes to wildlife viewing is "Big is beautiful" so the lack of movement was not an isssue. We were even treated to a grandstand view of a shameless male elephant seal and a female meking baby elephant seals. Despite being one of the ugliest creatures on earth (weighing a few tons with a stunted proboscis from which the name derives) the male elephant seal is the proud owner of a harem of up to about ten relatively petite females. They don´t seem quite so keen on the arrangement however and after the male´s declaration of randiness, three of his ´wives´ managed to avoid him before he pounced on his victim. Indeed all you could see of the poor female during intercourse was a pleading face beggging for mercy. When the deed was done and Casanova rolled off and went to sleep, the unfortunate lady ran off as far away as possible and tried to bury herself in the sand. Thelife of a male elephant seal is not a tough one. Providing you don´t have a conscience.

The last stop was the main reason for the trip - another chance to go whale watching. Our previous whale sighting was undeniably one of the moments of the year and although today didn´t quite match it, it wasn´t far behind. To the benefit of the spectator, if not the whales, Argentina doesn´t deem it necessary to keep a certain distance away from the mammals. Consequently, wlthough we weren´t treated to the acrobatics of our last trip, we did get to almost within touching distance of this ugly but simultaneously beautiful (remember - big is beautiful) variety - the Southern Right Whale. One calf even had the decency to execute a few tail-slaps (where the whales dives in a manner so that their tail is the last part to enter the water).