Whales: Giants of the Ocean

Whales are among the largest and most remarkable animals on Earth. These marine mammals live in oceans around the world, from warm tropical waters to the cold seas surrounding the poles.

Life Beneath the Surface

Although whales spend their lives in water, they breathe air through blowholes located on top of their heads. They must regularly return to the surface to breathe before diving again in search of food or traveling through the ocean.

Whales are warm-blooded, give birth to live young, and nurse their calves with milk. A thick layer of fat called blubber helps protect them from cold water and stores energy during long migrations.

Two Main Groups

Whales are generally divided into baleen whales and toothed whales. Baleen whales filter small animals from the water using flexible plates inside their mouths. This group includes blue whales, humpback whales, and gray whales.

Toothed whales use teeth to catch fish, squid, and other prey. Many of them also use echolocation, producing sounds and listening for returning echoes to understand their surroundings. Sperm whales, belugas, and orcas belong to this group.

The Blue Whale

The blue whale is the largest known animal to have ever lived. An adult can grow longer than a city bus and weigh well over one hundred tonnes. Despite its enormous size, it feeds mainly on tiny crustaceans called krill.

Communication and Migration

Whales communicate using clicks, whistles, pulses, and complex songs. Some sounds can travel across great distances underwater. Humpback whales are especially famous for their long, patterned songs.

Many species migrate thousands of kilometres each year. They often feed in cold, nutrient-rich waters before traveling to warmer regions where they mate and give birth.

Protecting Whales

Commercial hunting once caused severe declines in many whale populations. Today, whales also face threats from fishing gear, ship collisions, underwater noise, pollution, and changes to ocean ecosystems.

Conservation programs, safer fishing practices, protected habitats, and international cooperation can help whale populations recover. Protecting whales also supports healthier oceans because these animals play an important role in marine food webs and nutrient cycles.

We are still on our Monster Mobile, an oversized for our taste Caravan, on the French Atlantic coast road. We were less than a week on the Ile de Ré and have now worked our way around 400 kilometers in stages the coast to Biarritz, the center of the French Basque country.

The coast is me sympathetic with each passing day. Again the scenery changes completely. What board just before and was marked with long sandy beaches, is now hilly. The beach fun takes place in smaller bays.

Biarritz sounds in my ears. A longing that appeals to me for a long time and then nevertheless disappointed has. Beautifully is the known cosmopolitan sea and health resort on the French Atlantic coast. At that time imperial summer residence. Unfortunately, the town is touristy so so crowded that it has given us grace despite his no pleasure. Your own fault, we are in high season on the road. But what else can we do with school age child?

Nevertheless, Biarritz offers an extremely chilly city beach called Cotes-des Basques.

There we park looking overlooking the sea, put on tea and watch surfers willing to learn and crack. Honestly, I do not have the water, here in the sun with a gentle breeze it can be superbly endure.

Rooms are available at Biarritz but not recommended, campsites only the price of a middle-class hotels.

After the search, the lot of road trip camper, but we will find them and rewarded for the effort. We land on a community campsite in Guéthary: with sea view, dinky, small beach and excellent sundowner beach bar between Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz – so kill two birds with one stone (Remember tip!). Saint-Jean-de-Luz we had already chosen as the last milestone.

We are now nearly three weeks traveling and want more rest. We emphasize the Spanish side of the Basque Country conceptually and practically in our travel plans and enjoy the last days to the fullest.

How’s the parking pass for the National Parks in Canada?

The National Park Pass you get in each Visitor Center, or simply at the entrance of your first national parks (at a small ranger station). There you can pay cash or by credit card.

The daily rate is currently at about 10CAD. The annual pass is a little less than 70CAD per person. A family or group paid a little less than 140CAD. If you have previously unsure of how long you are in the national parks, you can go, this is not a problem. You can also collect the day passes, leaving after 7 days change to an annual pass.

With us there is a net worth pass. This is, incidentally, valid for one year. It must be signed on the back and be hung on the windshield. The passports are checked from time to time and are not transferable.

Reserve campsites in advance?

A very common question for which there is no general answer. We have prebooked in Canada a single Campground (CG). Since it was off-season, it was usually never a problem. Besides a Saturday, but we had an alternative. For our second trip we have the CG prebooked before Vancouver in Porteau Cove Provincial Park and we would do it again and again, because that is quite popular.

Otherwise, we will reserve in the future only the total popular places in advance. For us it is more important to be flexible. In high season, the looks the same bit different. Here I would reserve in any case the popular places and nights on Fridays and Saturdays in advance. Especially the nights on public holidays. Note the reservation fee of about 6 CAD daily.