We had the opportunity to go whale watching in the Bay of Fundy. First we looked up whale watching tour companies online and we settled on one that we thought was well established.
The lady on the line that I spoke with offered to include us in the whale sight seeing cruise on one of their larger boats. These offer the best price and no doubt many opportunities to get close to the whales. However, I specifically asked about the zodiac whale watching.
Which is better for getting up close to whales a zodiac or sight seeing cruise? Zodiac’s are smaller boats that can travel faster and no doubt closer to the whales. The other advantage of the zodiac is there are much less people. In our boat we had around 8 plus the pilot. Instead of fighting to get a good look at the whales, everyone can easily see the whales from their position.
The lady gave us a few times to choose from and we choose the 3-3:30pm time slot. This we felt would give us enough time to get to the location and not be too much in a hurry. In the future I think I would try for an earlier time slot since we were back at the dock at around 5:30ish. There are not a lot of options as far as eating out in the area so it took a while to rush back to Digby where there are more options.
We planned our trip around a weekend. We would be leaving Halifax on Saturday afternoon and arrive at our campground after about a 2-3 hour drive. We would be camping overnight Saturday and Sunday and return on Monday.
We choose to tent camp for our accommodations. We decided to tent camp because we know how to camp in a comfortable way. Since we plan simple meals and pack light our camping is simple and efficient. We also choose to tent camp so we could control our accommodations vs staying in a hotel. We bring our own stuff and know what to expect.
We choose to look for accommodations in the Digby area vs camping closer to Briar Island where the whale watching departs. While there are accommodations closer to the whale watching, Digby is a larger center and offers more eating out choices and places to stay.
Since we are tent campers we prefer a more private area suited for tent camping. We try to stay away from the parking lot RV camping sites since there is not as much privacy when camping in a tent. The Digby area offers some camping choices but we found one that we were happy with.
The name of the campground we stayed at was Bear River Milliard Recreation. It was a quirky campground run by an older gentleman. He provided a spot to pitch and a fire and firewood. There was also showers and bathrooms nearby. We found that while we were pitched quite close to a neighbor, the way the lots were situated away form each other and the fact that their popup was facing away from our camp made it still feel pretty private.
Our site was amazing though. We were pitched directly on the Bear River. Our camp was facing up river and we very much enjoyed sitting by the fire and watching the tides ebb and flow. We also observed the wildlife on the river such as birds fishing, eagles, and herons nesting.
I learned before going that striped bass are also present in the river so I brought my tackle. I didn’t catch any though but fishing is always relaxing and I was so close to the river that the fishing was easily accessible.
What about the cost? Well, I must say its probably the cheapest non-interior camping that I have done. The site was no joke, 20$ per night at this writing and the wood was an extra 10$. The wood was well dried and burned great which is sometimes touch and go at these kinds of campgrounds where you must purchase your wood.
This is the advantage of tent camping, if you know how to do it. We packed light, just brought some regular oatmeal for breakfast and a box of instant oatmeal to mix into it for flavor. The oatmeal easily carries you until lunch. For the day of our whale watching we packed Lara bars which get the job done for lunch and are easy to pack. For dinner we ate out. Just eat one big meal out and that carries you. If you are eating the typical east coast fare, deep fried fish and chips and Digby scallops than having the light breakfast and lunch is probably a good idea. All in all the entire trip, including the whale watching was probably just under 300$ at the time of this writing. The packing for the trip probably took us just a couple hours at most and we slept just fine and enjoyed the trip a lot.
On the day of our whale watching we drove towards briar island. On the way we stopped at the famous Balancing Rock. It is a rock that looks as though it is balancing on the edge of a precipice. The hike is short however you must scale a long staircase that brings you from the top of a cliff down to the Balancing Rock, which is on the Bay of Fundy. I am glad we stopped, I found the hike down more exciting than seeing the balancing rock.
We had to take two ferries to get to Briar Island. The final island that juts out into the Bay of Fundy along the Digby Neck. Usually there is a charge for each ferry but due to Covid-19 the ferry was free.
Once we arrived on Briar Island we took some time to look around. There is a plaque on the island dedicated to Joshua Slochum who famously circumnavigated the world alone, apparently the first person to do so. He was born on Briar Island.
It came time for us to check in and pick up our zodiac orange suits. In most cases the suits would keep you pretty warm and dry but on the day we went the ocean was quite calm and the air warm, so I ended up unzipping the top of it.
We all loaded up on the zodiac and we sped out towards the area that the whales frequent. We all kept our eyes on the horizon to see if we could hear or see the unmistakable blow of a whale spout. We say another large boat in the distance and could see a large animal moving around in the water. It was the whales!
We sped towards the whales and as we approached the raised their flukes and began their dive. We waited around for a while to see where the would emerge. Sure enough they came up quite a ways away, so we sped towards them. This time they didn’t dive and we were able to get a good look at them. They were humpbacks and we could see their large pectoral fins through the surface.
As the day progressed there seemed to be humpback whales everywhere. We were around 5miles out on the Bay of Fundy and the area must be extremely productive to support so many large animals.
On the way back someone caught a glimpse of a different type of fin cutting through the water. There was a seagull bobbing in the water as the v- shape approached it. The seagull seamed to know there was danger and it took a peak below the surface to see what was underneath it. After taking one look it immediately took off. We knew this know doubt was a shark, what kind we couldn’t tell. As we approached it the shark quickly changed directions away from us. I was wearing polarized sunglasses and got a glimpse at is large tail fin and that was all I could see and it was gone. It was definitely not a small shark.
On the way back we also passed a seal colony and we could see the seals bobbing about checking us out. Finally we arrived back in the harbor and disembarked. Both my wife and I felt that the Zodiac experience was worth the extra money and would most certainly do it again sometime.
Here is a video of our experience. The whales were even closer than what I filmed since when they were close I tried to film them underwater. However due to the murkiness nothing was captured.
Bear River Milliard Recreation