My Summer Road-trip - part 6 

(the super exciting part is almost here, trust me)

note: pictures are taken with mom's phone, my little camera, and mom's camera... feel free to click on images, including maps to see them larger. 

Hello Hello Hello Everyone... 

Welcome to the next part of my road trip. We are still on the northern part of Vancouver Island back in Campbell River, B.C. where the weather is nice and plenty of gorgeous scenery and wildlife around... 

This morning we met up with Nick to go out on his boat.. I just love his boat. We didn't have to go far this morning for Orcas as there was a small group of Transient Orcas just off Quadra Island, which is the island I can see from my hotel. :) 

I decided to take a short nap just as we started to head out.. 

There was just a lot of down time with these Transient Orcas, a lot of fishing boats in the area not helping their dive times, so since there was not a lot going on, mom decided that I could sit with her since I was wanting out of my stroller. Hey, if everyone else is sitting in a "normal" chair, then I can to! 

Mom was trying to take pictures with me in her lap, and was doing pretty good when all of a sudden, one of the females came flying out of the water. Nick or Mom were prepared for that to happen, and unfortunately, it only happened the one time, but it was what mom was waiting for. They can leap out of the water like 20-30 feet high, but mom just got the tail end of it. See below... 

These two males had huge dorsal fins. 

We stayed with them for a short time until we went and picked up Nick's fiance Janeen.. We got word that some of the Northern Residents (A8's, A23's, A25's) were heading north? so she joined us since this is her favorite group of A's. It was pretty stormy looking out, but some areas were so pretty as we headed up to Kelsey Bay / Samon River area. 

There was a really cute Orca calf.. 

Mom had Cubby and I stay in my stroller due to the weather outside, and I was pretty happy about that anyway. I got to watch the Orcas coming towards us from behind.. :) 

We followed them for a long ways, and it started raining, seas getting rough, so we headed back in plus it was getting late. 

Mom and I went down to the docks where a fish restaurant is to get some dinner to go. We took it back to our hotel room and hung out for the evening. Mom took this photo from the parking lot just below our room at the hotel. 

Cape Mudge Lighthouse on Quadra Island... Yep, the Orcas were about a 1/4 mile off the point this morning. The Transient Orcas... 

We were both pretty wiped out, so I got to cuddle up in my blanket with Mickey and Cubby watching my programs... :) Sometimes I really like evenings like these.. 

The next morning, Mom and I had a slow morning since we were not meeting Nick until noon down at the dock. It was a gorgeous, but super chilly morning.. I was excited to be going back out on the boat.. Me in the car on our way to Nick's. 

We got on the water and headed north?? again to catch up with the Northern Residents (A8's and A30's) at Chatham Point, Vancouver Island heading west (seems north to mom and I). 

It was a gorgeous day on the water.. I was having so much fun, and I think the Orcas were too. They were all spread out at times, sometimes in small groups and towards the end, pretty much one or two groups making each group very large. A few times, we saw some rubbing up against the rocks along the cliffs. 

up And two of the Orcas, maybe even three or more came by under the surface. The water was so calm and clear, you could see them.. I think they were looking up at me. 

Some Lags (Pacific White Sided Dolphins - cousins to my best friends) showed up and traveled with the Orcas for a while. They love doing that along with harassing the Orcas.  Here is a mom and baby traveling in front of this Orca. :) I think my friends were showing the Orcas the way.. 

I insisted that I get to sit in one of the "normal" seats on Nick's boat for this trip, so she bundled me up. Areas were warm, and other areas were so cold like here in this photo. I know you can barely see me, but you can see a large male Orca in the background. So pretty up there.. 

Look at the size of this males dorsal fin! It is HUGE! I bet it is taller than me as some of them can get to be more than 6 feet tall. 

We were sitting still on the water just letting the Orcas pass by us. Well the ones that were coming up from behind us. Not sure where they came from. This one passed us pretty close. Luckily Nick already had the engine off as we were just floating. 

The scenery is gorgeous!! 

Here is a closer look at a Pacific White Sided Dolphin in front of the Orca calf.. 

And you can see the dolphins when they passed close to our boat.. 

They are starting to group up in the two large groups where at times it is one big group. 

Sometimes they are in sync, and other times they are not or just a few of them are.  

Isn't the calf so cute?? 

And we finally got a breach! :)

This gorgeous scene is an area where the water is about 100 feet deep and the Orcas love coming here to dive down and rub on the beach. They will all surface several times, taking large breaths before they all go down together. They stay down for several minutes, you wonder if they are ever coming back up. Then all of a sudden, they all re-surface with these strong breaths. They take several more strong breaths before diving back down. They did this a few times before continuing on. 

Unfortunately and obviously, it is very difficult to photograph, so I can just tell you about it. :) Mom tried to take some video, but it just didn't tell the story. 

People know the Orcas do this at this specific spot in the channel from underwater video taping the behavior many years ago. 

Once they started to move on, we turned around and made the chilly trek back. 

That evening, mom and I went for a nice long walk along the waterfront on this trail before going back to our hotel. But, once we were at our hotel, mom took me swimming in the hotels pool. The pool area was so cool. 

Tomorrow is the day.. Tomorrow is the BEST day of the trip!!  I will be back soon with details.. 

Until then.. 

Love, 

Kayla