A few weeks in heaven
by Anat Shushan
A whales journal
I love the ocean.
I love its power, its magic, its mystery, its beauty.
The ocean is like a parallel planet to the one we know, or think we know, the land.
It has creatures living in it you can’t even begin to imagine.
The beauty is endless and is many times so overwhelming, its beyond words to describe.
For many years I’ve been fascinated by whales and dolphins. Both, besides being so cute and beautiful, are so wise! They have interesting and clever behaviors that us, humans, can learn so much from.
In the past 15 years I’ve been following the activity of IMMRAC (Israel Marine Mammal Research & Assistance Center), a non-profit Israeli based organization lead by Dr. Oz Goffman and dedicated to the study and conservation of these magnificent animals.
In the past 3 years, each summer, this unique organization sent a research expedition to the Bazaruto Archipelago in Mozambique, Africa to study the Humpback whales arriving for 3 months from Antarctica.
On August 2021 I went with them on a journey, I went to fulfil a lifetime dream.
I knew it was going to be exciting, I knew it will be fascinating, I knew I will have a great time.
I didn’t know how much!
On July 23rd we had the preparatory meeting to the journey. When I got there I already knew I got to the right place with my kind of people and a smell of a real adventure was in the air.
Due to Covid restrictions and constant change in guidelines and also having our scheduled flight canceled, we couldn’t be sure till the last minute that we will be able to go, but we had a mission, a goal, a dream. We weren’t willing to let anything stop us. And so, on August 3rd, the journey begun.
Instead of flying from Tel Aviv straight to Johannesburg, we had to take a “short” detour through Frankfurt which made the trip 22 hours long. Traveling during Covid times… Finally, we landed in Vilanculos, already united and looking forward to meeting the whales.
For some of the people it was already the 4rd time there after spending their previous summers with the expedition.
For some, like me, it was the first time.
Since it was also the first time I got to travel ever since the pandemic stormed into our lives, it was like going back breathing. I missed traveling so much and getting to a totally new place, one I’ve never been to before and that is so totally different from everything I knew was so exciting to me and I made sure from the very first moment that I am fully present, leaving anything related to my everyday life out.
On the way from the Vilanculos airport to the lodge where we stayed, a 15 minutes drive, my eyes were going crazy of what I saw and the frames that were passing me by. We drove through the market and the small streets of the village. Fascinating!
And then we got there, to Baraka beach, our home for the next few weeks.
We got to heaven, no less than that. The place was built and belongs to an amazing Israeli couple who had a dream to have a place like this and 4 years ago they made it happen.
I think letting the images speak will be best at this point.
My room was the upper one on the right
The whole place was built by hand, with local materials only and local workers with maximum consideration in the environment and the heart and soul of Orna and Avner, the owners, is felt in every corner of the place. Very simple and goes straight to the heart.
From my porch I got to see each morning magnificent sunrises like I have never seen before.
The next day, we got up at sunrise, had a quick breakfast and headed out to the open ocean, not knowing what will the day bring.
We knew that the whales got to the Archipelgo about a week before but we couldn’t be sure if/when we will see them.
The ride from the beach to the open ocean takes about an hour, it takes time to cross the Archipelago.
Once we got to the open sea it didn’t take long. After just a few minutes we spotted the first whale and from there it just kept getting better and better.
We saw tens of them that day, mostly couples of mothers and calves. We couldn’t believe our eyes! The smile didn’t leave our faces. We even got quite close to some of them.
I was one of the documenting photographers on the boat. I can’t tell you how happy I was and how grateful for being a photographer. Pure happiness.
Being a street photographer, I am used to being alert and with quick instincts. But shooting on a rocking boat and with animals that are gone in a second, wasn’t easy. I needed a couple of days to get the hang of it and I did.
We went out to the ocean almost every day. From sunrise till afternoon, many hours and hard work, getting sun burns and being washed with cold water, we were the happiest people on the planet.
That was our reality for weeks. Spending most of our days with whales. Tens of them, right in front of our eyes, sometimes they were curious about us and got closer to check us out swimming under our boat.
This specific sub pod of Humpback whales called C1, makes an unbelievable journey every year from Antarctica to Mozambique to give birth and educate the “little” ones before heading back to Antarctica.
This sub-pod is combined of couples of mothers and their calves and usually another male, not necessarily the father, who is the escort. He keeps them safe.
During the 3 months in Mozambique the whales don’t feed. They are concentrated on their task. No time to hunt and feed, only the calved feed from their mother’s milk.
Since education is what it is about, we got to see some really fascinating behaviors of the whales while the mothers where teaching the babies how to be whales.
The young ones really enjoy jumping. Their huge side fins and tales function like huge motors and they jump with their whole body out of the water.
They do that of several reasons, mostly to practice since that’s one of the ways of the adult males to show power when they court the females. Also, they are calves, they just enjoy playing.
On some of the days we had a whale jumping so close to the boat that it didn’t go full in the frame. I had to get them in pieces.
A female that jumped three meters from our boat
Besides documenting the whales with pictures and video, we also lowered hydrophones in the water and recorded the whales talking to each other.
On the first time (and second, and third) I put the earphones on and heard their voices, I started crying. It was totally overwhelming!
I listened to recordings of whale voices before, but to listen to then live while they are right under our boat is something so powerful, that words can’t describe it.
The work on the boat never ends. But we also had lovely moments of just enjoying the ocean and being with each other. Unforgettable moments.
And we had the most amazing skippers driving the boat and helping us spot the animals.
Besides whales, we got to document 4 different types of dolphins- Tursiops aduncus, Stenella longirostris, Stenella attenuate, Sousa plumbea, sometimes in pods of hundreds and a pod of a unique mammal called Dugong dugon.
What a breathtaking site it was. Most of the times I just stood there watching, without even taking pictures.
The most exciting thing to see was dolphins swimming alongside the whales. Wow!
Right under our lodge there is a beautiful beach from which our boat left every morning.
Every morning, at sunrise, the local fishermen prepare their boats and head out to the sea, sometimes for days.
In the afternoon, when the men come back, the women of the village come to the beach and in minutes an improvised fish market is alive and kicking. This is the scene we came back to every day when we got back from our days in the ocean. We were able to sit for a long while and just observe this.
On the few days we couldn’t go out to the ocean because of the weather, we usually headed to the village and to get to know the local people. These were amazing days.
The local people are really nice. They accepted us wonderfully and in some cases some beautiful friendships were created.
Most locals are very poor. They hardly have any material thins. Many of them live in straw huts having earth as their floor. And yet, they are so gentle, welcoming, heartwarming.
Whenever we could, we gave them cloths, toys for the children, sunglasses. All those things that mean nothing to us but are a whole world for them.
Of course, for me, as a street photographer these days were pure joy.
We spent a few weeks in heaven, connected to nature in the deepest levels, enjoyed the total pureness of the place, forgot all about TV, computers, cell phones.
A few weeks with amazing people, each and every one is a story, an inspiration. I came back from there with a new family. Dear people that will always be deep in my heart.
