I had booked the 4 hour adventure tour to Carnac Island as a birthday gift for my husband for 24th February. This was the same day of the Rottnest Channel Swim. We arrived 10mins before our 8am tour to a full boat with other passengers including staff Aidan, Lockie (and I can't remember the name of the other staff member). To be honest we were surprised the tour wasn't cancelled because the weather on this day was terrible from the start. It was cold, windy and rainy at parts. We would have appreciated being given the option (either prior to the day or on arrival) to book an alternative date, but we werent given any other option but to show up and continue the tour. We set off for Carnac Island as planned and as you can imagine, the boat ride was extremely cold and windy (our mistake for not bringing a jumper), and as it was such a full boat there was nowhere to sit so we had to balance as best we could while standing. At one stage my husband and I were standing near the front of the boat as there was a table we could lean against for balance. We were told (a bit impatiently) by Aidan to move to the back to sit down (because we were blocking the entry to the front room and had to keep moving out of the way). This was understandable, however with such a full boat of people all the seats were taken and there was nowhere to sit or lean on for support. So we moved to the back and balanced as best we could while standing. On arrival at Carnac Island the waters were extremely choppy and murky. We reluctantly jumped in for a snorkel but the group only went into the water once (my husband and I were in the water for a total of around 20mins) because it was just too murky and choppy to see anything. It was really disappointing and not the enjoyable experience we had been hoping for. The tour ended up coming back to Fremantle a bit earlier than scheduled (likely due to the dangerous water conditions). All in all, it was not the enjoyable experience we had hoped and paid for. We had heard such great feedback from friends who had been to the island previously, I have no doubt it would have been amazing in better weather conditions so we were really disappointed that this tour went ahead and we weren't given the opportunity to reschedule for an alternative day.
Well we saw Whales! End of season meant ‘we saw Whales’ but not that close up and only one mother and baby so a bit Whale lite.
What an amazing experience! Just blown away by the size and gracefulness of these majestic creatures. Plenty of breaching and play amongst the whales and we saw heaps of them too. The skipper and the crew were fantastic and very personable and friendly. Overall just a great day out and well worth it. As a tour guide from Margaret River myself, I highly recommend this tour and wouldn't hesitate for a second recommending this to anyone who wants to watch whales from a fantastic boat with a great crew. Thanks guys for making my day off a memorable one. Just awesome!
We had a wonderful time! There were lots of whales about, although they tended to dive when we were near and breach in the distance. The skipper went to a lot of trouble to get as close as possible and was friendly and informative. There were only about 15 people on board, so we all had excellent opportunities to take photos. The trip was much longer than originally booked (almost 3 hours) because we spotted a couple of whales on the way home so the skipper detoured to get closer. The weather was superb for sailing and the crew were more than welcoming - I thoroughly recommend this charter.
We throughly enjoyed our whale watching trip from Busselton yesterday. We were fortunate that we saw quite a number of whales up close and from a distance. The boat kept a respectful distance from a mother and calf and we felt very lucky to see nature at its finest. There were some whales having a great time breeching in the far distance and they had stopped by the time the boat reached them but hey, thats nature and we were happy just knowing they were there. The crew were very knowledgeable in particular the young girl with the pony tail ( I'm afraid I didn't catch her name).