story | Whale watching.

^{By @cnandofer}

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He went to this little corner of the world every summer for the last 25 years. He liked to get out of the city, away from the noise and the pollution. He enjoyed the smell of the sea, it remembered him of his father who worked as a sailor when he was a child.

He arrived at the camping Friday morning, Lukas greeted him with a big smile, these people had been like a summer family to him. He met Lukas for the first time when he was a just a little child helping his father with the kayak rental business.

“Is a good season, we’ve seen a lot of whales already!!! This will be the year when you finally see a whale jumping my friend”, Lukas told him. He hugged the young man and thought about all the times that he had missed the "whale jump".

Some years, he had been looking in another direction when someone yelled “Look!!! Look!!!” and missed it for a fraction of a second. Other times he had been eating, in the toilet or in his tent, while the "whale jump" happened.

Watching a whale jumping is not as common as someone may expect, but he had gone to this spot for 25 years in a row, this spot where other people had seen whales jumping, he simply hadn't been lucky.

I went whale watching for the first and only time in my life 2 years ago. I was surprised at how many whales you can see all the time. Often during the day, I was able to see the fin of a whale coming out of the water.

Being there at night, under the light of the moon and the star listening to the noise made by the whales was one of the most relaxing experiences of my life. It made me think with another perspective about the planet and the species living on it.

In the morning of the second day, we walked through the coastline to a spot where for some reason the whales are seeing more frequently. By this time, I watched a lot of whales already and I learned that watching a whale jumping is not as common as I thought it was.

In this spot, there were some people on kayaks surrounded by more than one whale that every once in a while showed their fins. Suddenly, from nowhere a big black whale came out of the water, showing at least half of her body. Few minutes after, it happened again and a third time after that. For few moments we were having a private whale show.

I was thinking that it may be scary to be in one of the kayaks while the whale jumps around when I noticed the old guy standing next to me. With a tear on his face, he told me: “I waited to see this for 25 years”. I was tempted to say that was my first time ever watching whales, but I decided to just put my hand on his shoulder, make a gesture with my head and say nothing as we kept looking at the water.

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