Can someone please add a new logbook to this cache? Please let the CO know for a mention in the honor role below! Thank you!
Please note: This cache is fairly busy, if someone is busy with it please be patient and wait for them to finish. Also, because it being so busy you may not always find TB's present as people only log them later. Lastly, it is a 1/1 intentionally, I rather tell the story and read yours than have you struggle to find the hide!
This cache commemorates something we as family witnessed a few years ago: the birth of a South right whale!
Birth of a Baby Whale This is what to look out for:
1. If you see seagulls circling over the sea, don’t move or look away. They know what is about to happen.
2. The mother whale comes in close to just beyond the breakers when she knows it’s time to calve. She is accompanied by another adult whale, which is often a male ‘midwife’.
3. As she starts the birth process, you can see the water being twirled around fiercely by her tail. There is also evidence of blood in the water.
4. As the calf is born, normally whitish, the midwife pushes the five- to six-metre calf to the surface for its first breath of air. (Probably to have the same effect as humans when they get a smack on the bum.)
5. The midwife then guides the calf onto the mother’s teat, for its first meal of approximately 200 litres of milk.
6. Once the calf is satisfied, and detaches from the teat, the midwife guides the calf a short distance away from the mom.
7. Mom then goes through the final stage by passing the afterbirth. Once this birth process is over, the seagulls start diving for the feast.
8. Mother and calf are then reunited, and the midwife moves on to the next female that needs assistance.
9. Mother and calf will stay swimming just beyond the breakers for the first two weeks, and then move into deeper water as the calf gets stronger. By now the calf is drinking as much as 600 litres of milk a day, and growing by three centimeters per day.
10. Mom and calf will hang around in the nursery, until the last week of November or first week in December.
11. Once the calf is strong enough (about four months old) to tackle the journey south, to the 40th parallel, and feeding grounds, they will depart.
In the pic below you will see a lighter grey object in the sea. This is the baby having just been pushed to the surface to take its first breath! What an amazing experience, and all this less than 40 metres from us where we stood on the rocks close to this cache!
It is my wish for you as cacher to also maybe witness this! Enjoy the cache and the special spot!
2016-09-16 : Thanks to stefaans15243 for replacing the Logbook!
2018-03-05 : Thanks to stefaans15243 for cleaning up the container and doing running repairs!
2017-02-15 - Just been noted as the most found cache in South Africa in 2016!