Some years ago in New Zealand, my daughter and I went whale watching. If you want to see whales in New Zealand, you really need to go down to the Kaikoura coast, in the South Island, but we were a long way from there, so we took the local North Island option of Whakatane.

Today, looking at the company’s website, it all seems to be about swimming with dolphins, but then it was billed as a Whale Watch, with the opportunity to swim with dolphins as a bonus, so we clambered into a boat with loads of people in wet suits and off we went.

Now, I like dolphins. Don’t get me wrong. I love dolphins. But what I was really hoping for was to see a whale.

No doubt our skipper had all the right credentials for captaining an excursion boat, but it seemed that all he really needed was a ship-to-shore radio and the ability to make quick and tight turns. There was a constant crackling interchange of information about where dolphins had been sighted, and a constant turning about and haring off in different directions. We ended up bruised, whip-lashed, wet, very cold and just a little bit queasy. We didn’t see any dolphins, and we certainly didn’t see a whale.

When my friend Barbara and I decided to go on a badger watch in Wytham Woods recently, Nigel, the team leader, put our chances at seeing any at about 60/40. Or maybe it was the other way round.

Either way, I didn’t really hold out any great hopes of success, but spending a quiet evening in Wytham Woods is just a nice thing to do.

So about 20 of us met up, divided into two groups and went off to our designated spots to sit quietly and see what happened. Nothing happened. Well, that’s not quite true. A few things happened. It slowly darkened. The breeze rustled through the leaves and the day birds did a bit of quiet settling down. A bat darted past, an owl called, and a small rodent poked its head out and came to see what we were doing before it scampered noiselessly off.

It was magical. Although some people reported seeing a tail, we didn’t see any badgers. Afterwards, though, Barbara swore she heard them laughing.

Come to think of it, I seem to remember hearing those dolphins laughing as well.

Priscilla Waugh www.priscillawaugh.wordpress.com