listen
Richard: For this week's podcastsinenglish.com I'm talking to Jackie who's just come back from quite an exciting trip. Isn't that right, Jackie?
Jackie: I have, yes.
Richard: So, where have you been?
Jackie: Well, I've been down to the south of Spain er... and I've been whale watching.
Richard: Whale watching?
Jackie: Mmm
Richard: Okay. So who did you go with?
Jackie: I went with this company called Aventura Marina.
Richard: Right, okay.
Jackie: Run by a guy called Angel and it was wonderful.
Richard: So, I must admit I've been whale watching in New Zealand, I've seen sperm whales but I don't think there are sperm whales in Spain, so what did you see?
Jackie: Well, before we went out Angel gave a talk about what we might see and the reason why the Strait of Gibraltar, the narrow area between Spain and Morocco, is so good for seeing these kind of animals. Um... so I was very excited about all sorts of things I could see. In the end er... we saw striped dolphins. Now I had never heard of striped dolphins, had you?
Richard: No. I know there are lots of different types but never striped.
Jackie: There were over a thousand striped dolphins.
Richard: You saw a thousand dolphins?
Jackie: That's what they say. It was amazing. The... the water looked like it was boiling because there were so many dolphins leaping out of the water.
Richard: Wow! Any other sorts of dolphins?
Jackie: Yes, we saw my favourite. Um... a small group of the... the bottlenose dolphins.
Richard: Ah, Flipper* [laughs]
Jackie: There were swimming, at the, as they always do, at the front of the boat.
Richard: Right, okay.
Jackie: And the third group that we saw were pilot whales.
Richard: Oh right, okay, yeah.
Jackie: Yeah
Richard: They're quite small whales, aren't they?
Jackie: They have this very strange shaped head. I don't know if you... if you know what they look like.
Richard: I think so, it's a very square head?
Jackie: Yeah and um... there were about 25 of them.
Richard: Okay
Jackie: Now for all of these, I took photographs and stuff um... especially the striped dolphins I was taking loads and loads of photos and the films and things like this, so it wasn't until I got back, that I spoke to Angel about what we had seen and he said that there was a baby with the, well there were calves with the pilot whales and their photographer had managed to take some pictures of that.
Richard: So he had a big telephoto lens and he got a photo of the babies?
Jackie: He did, yes, indeed.
Richard: Wow. So what sort of boat were you on then for this?
Jackie: Actually, that's an interesting question Richard. It was a catamaran.
Richard: Okay
Jackie: And um... what was... what was, particularly interesting is that the hulls had windows in so that you could see the animals underwater.
Richard: Oooh
Jackie: Fantastic for the children of course.
Richard: Yes. And were there many people on the trip?
Jackie: Um.... about 40 I would say, that's all.
Richard: Okay. Quite a big boat then.
Jackie: Yeah. Yeah, I think it's 20 metres.
Richard: So you saw the two sorts of dolphins, and the pilot whales.
Jackie: Yeah, and I was happy about that but one of the things that you can see, and you can see those all year round...
Richard: Okay
Jackie: Um... one of the things I was kind of hoping that I might be lucky to see, were the orcas.
Richard: Oh yes, the killer whales.
Jackie: Exactly because um... they start coming um... July to September.
Richard: Oh. So they are only seasonal then, are they?
Jackie: Exactly, exactly.
Richard: So overall then? Was it worth it then? Was it expensive?
Jackie: I thought it was quite expensive before I went on the trip. It was €30.
Richard: Not too bad though, I think, how many hours was it on?
Jackie: It was a good two hours. It was a good two hours.
Richard: Oh, it's not too bad, I don't think.
Jackie: No but at the end it was such a fantastic time, I really enjoyed seeing all the dolphins and the pilot whales, I would definitely recommend it, yes, I thought it was perfect.
*Flipper was a pet dolphin in a TV series first shown in the 1960s.
Tra từ điển