Trip Report: Blue whales in Timor Leste, November 2024
A beautiful giant, the blue whale!
In 2024, we once again set out on the long journey to East Timor, hoping to get up close to the world’s largest animal: the blue whale!
In 2024, we hosted guests from Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S. for two weeks, and let me just say right off the bat: all our guests left happy once again!
Both weeks got off to a great start! Great weather, no wind, no waves and lots of whales provided the first highlights! On the first two days of both weeks we had between 20 and 30 sightings below the surface with several blue whales.
You often see blue whales in the water from a bird's eye view, but we also had several encounters with the whales on the surface at eye level. The moment when a 23-metre-long blue whale swims past you, seemingly without any effort, is incomparable!
We were also lucky enough to encounter other sea creatures during both weeks. In week 1, we encountered a group of active sperm whales, which thrilled us with their powerful leaps. We also found a beautiful oceanic manta ray!
In week 2 we found sperm whales again. A huge sperm whale bull had joined a group of females. The size ratios of sperm whales are absolutely impressive. The males are almost twice as big as the females. Swimming with sperm whales is difficult in this region of the world, as some of the animals are still hunted. However, we were lucky here too and were able to enjoy a great encounter in the water.
We found blue whales practically every day (we only had no luck on one day) and usually had some great encounters. The highlight in week 2 was a group of 4 blue whales that never dived for more than 3-4 minutes and were not disturbed by the boats. We had the impression that they even found the interactions interesting! We often saw 3 or even all 4 whales in the water. Every time we turned, another giant came flying in. It was amazing!
The highlights of these weeks have also been captured on film. The video can be viewed here:
Thank you to everyone who took part in the weeks in Timor! It was incredible fun with you!
