Ocean Odyssey is Knysna’s only official whale watching permit holder in the area. Our Close Encounter Whale Watching Tours offers a unique experience for passengers as we traverse the Garden Route coastline in search of our migratory giants – Humpback & Southern Right Whales – annually from June to November.
With a maximum capacity of 25 passengers per tour, expect an intimate and personalised experience aboard our vessel which is accompanied by our skilled skipper and nature site guide. The tour departs from Thesen Island marina and cruises through the diverse Knysna estuary up to the impressive, rugged headlands. Passing through the Knysna Heads is an experience on its own! Once we skilfully manoeuvre our way through the headlands, we enter the vast Indian ocean where all the fun begins!
Keep your eyes peeled for the tell-tale signs of whales – their distinctive blow, a large body jumping out of the ocean and/or a big white splash! But you aren’t the only ones looking, our eagle eye spotter located at elevated viewpoints on the headlands is keeping a close eye on the coastline and communicating any activity to our crew and directing the vessel to sightings – this helps increase chances of sightings as this is marine life in their natural environment!
Approaching our gentle giants is done with incredible skill and respect. Our permit allows us to approach whales up to 50 meters, but it’s not uncommon to encounter curious whales that approach the vessel, and, in this instance, we remain stationery and observe their beauty until they move along. Whales are not the only marine life that can be experienced on this tour, our coastline is teeming with three species of dolphins – Bottlenose, Common and Humpback dolphin, Cape Fur seals, Brydes Whales (Non-migratory whale) African penguins, pelagic birdlife and from time to time depending on water clarity you may sight a shark or two! Whilst sighting the array of marine life that can be experienced, we also highlight the beauty of our unique coastline – the caves, and coves, cliffs and beaches – the magnificent natural scenery perfectly compliments the experience!
The duration of the activity is 1.5-2 hours and is sea and weather conditions permitting! We highly recommend booking this for the first day you are in the area, in the event of poor conditions we can reschedule you to the next best ocean-going day.
Bottled Still Water
Life Jacket
CHECK-IN IS 30 MINUTES PRIOR TO DEPARTURE TIME –
All passengers are required to complete our indemnity form.
Ready to be kitted out with lifejackets and present for our pre-departure briefing.
• Minimum of 4 passengers is required to proceed.
• Please dress warmly, it’s always cooler on the ocean than on land
• Children welcome (Min age 3 years old), Skipper will advise parent of young children if they feel conditions maybe uncomfortable for them – please contact our offices.
• Food and beverages are NOT permitted on board – water is available and is included in the tour
Wow. Just wow. We went out in search of humpback & came across a huge pod of common dolphins. Hundreds of them. Fabulous. Having followed them for a while we went off in search of humpbacks, only to be redirected by the land spotter back to the dolphins to catch the killer whale. So we did. We followed the killer whale for about 30 minutes as it chased down the dolphins & eventually caught them up. Ouch!! Spectacular. Can't remember if we saw any humpbacks... - Tony
Fantastic trip saw mother and baby humpback whale and hundreds of dolphins swimming alongside the boat. Brilliant experience from start to finish and one of the highlights of our 3 week trip to South Africa. - Elaine
We got to see 3 whales close up. They have a spotter on land which increases the chances of seeing whales. The guide and captain answered questions and then promoted more learning by asking the tourists questions in a fun way. This filled the time between the whales surfacing and diveing. We also saw seals and a penguin but only after they had found the main focus of the trip, whales. The trip included exciting fast travel in the boat and good views of the coastline. I suffer from motion sickness but took a pill beforehand and had no problems during the outing, - Gillian
We had a great time on this outting. They were so helpful from booking through the end of our tour! I highly recommend this outting. We saw Bryde whales, a huge pod of dolphins and seals! - Jennifer
It was great. Very kind personage en we see a lot of Wales, dolphins and seals. - Esther
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