The phone alarm went off at 4, flashing, beeping - all horrible. I did some rapid (for 4 am) recalculations - we had to be at the dolphin swim experience at 5.20, how long could I lie in for? Then Jen got up. Curses.
A taciturn breakfast of toast, tea and whatever we wanted on top. Packing extra things. Jen very quiet and pensive - I know she's nervous about this. I'm a bit apprehensive too - how much effort is going to be required? Will I remember how to use a snorkel? How cold will it be? Will the wetsuit they provide fit well enough to keep me warm??
Shut the doors quietly, remember to wind up the power cable, start the engine, drive down to 96 The Esplanade. Some other campers there already, it's only 5.10. Doors open at 5.20 and we queue to register. We are passed through to the kit provisioning area - big thick diving wetsuit (long johns and bolero type), balaclava, fins, mask, snorkel. Seems like good stuff, and apart from the fins, fits well, so I change those. Then go sit in the auditorium, with various slide shows of the proprietor's excellent wildlife pix. Jen comes in carrying her stuff too. Looks good in a wetsuit! We get a safety talk, distress signal, ok signal, how to get in the water, horns for entering and leaving. Nobody looks very happy!
There are two buses (on reflection, it's a bit like a Nazi death camp - "you vill be taking a schower!!", maybe that's why nobody looks very happy), and we manage to get in the right one. Drive down to the jetty beside the Whale Watch one from yesterday - the sun is beginning to warm up the horizon, an orange glow silhouetting the norfolk pines. There are two boats, we're in the white one. More safety talk - trail out in the seats, use outside for swimming and viewing. We get in the boat easily enough, it's a big fibreglass catamaran, big inner cabin, overbridge, walkways and large front deck, well setup for this game. Sun still hasn't appeared. Nobody has smiled yet either! Some surprising swimmers and non-swimmers - guy beside me looks fit enough, why not? Brit couple - she swims, he doesn't. Small Dutch boy with parents.
To everyone's relief, the sea is amazingly flat, not even choppy, a very slight swell, and the sky is utterly cloudless. The sun has still to put in an appearance as we zoom across the South Bay heading south again, but it's getting lighter, and about halfway to the dolphin spot it cracks the horizon, with the first rays turning the very air pink over the mountains. I manage to take some pictures of the scene, including the boat's wake spray lit by the sun.
And now we're there!! A few dolphins here, but we're told to get ready - flippers on, masks on, snorkels in place. Jen hangs back, the very helpful lady has suggested she wait until last if she's a bit nervous - she also provided some snorkel reminder lessons! Jen has a float too, to make her feel a bit confident, and this is a handy device, because you can rub your fingers on it to make it squeak, a very dolphin-attracting noise. Did I say that we are supposed to make lots of interesting noises? Apparently dolphins live in a sonic world, rather than a visual one, using their eyes only when they get close in the usually murky world they live in.
Into the water - momentary gasp as the stuff leaks into the chest area, I hate that bit, try kicking and snorkelling and find as usual that water comes down the tube and has to be expelled, like a phlegmy chest! It's ok though. I notice that I tend to swim right, so have to look up to correct. We are in the water for a few minutes and they sound the return horn, the dolphins have moved on. I get the last slot on the dive platform which is good for next time, and see Jen sitting up in the boat - thumbs up!
Now we see the main pod of dolphins - there are a lot, like maybe 100 of them, hard to say, but not a few. The boat accelerates ahead of the fleet, trying to get some distance in front so they can catch up. These are fast swimmers! We pull up, engines off, hooter goes, and we're off… The dolphins catch us and swim amongst us, as we hoot and sing and shout and click and squeak, making like cetaceans with circling swimming and dives. And they come in, close, really close, in pairs or threes, swimming around us, we circle, they circle, and they make eye contact!! You could almost reach out and touch them. but mustn't - they have very thin skin and it's easily marked and potentially infected. I can see scars on their bodies, tiny details of their skin pattern, and they are so so fast!! I lift my head out of the water just as one surfaces to breathe beside me and slides back down, it's impossible to grasp how close they are.
Eventually the pod passes on, we re-board and move to catch up. This session lasts even longer - Jen is sitting it out, satisfied to have eyeballed a dolphin that close, and still yet to be comfortable with the 1600m of under-foot depth and so on - although she later says the snorkel works well, and she's really happy!! Eventually, just as another pod is passing and I want to swim after them, the skipper calls three more minutes, and all too soon it's done.
Or is it? Dried, warmed, changed, we lean over the front rail as the boat tracks the pod - the dolphins are surfing our pressure wave, getting a free ride which they clearly enjoy, twisting, turning, jumping, even indulging in a little lurve, taking each other on the go with displays of twinned aquatics and lots of splashing. A couple of show-offs do repeated somersaults - this are a crazy manoeuvre which involves barrelling out of the water, doing a total end, and smashing back down regardless!! There is also the roll - come out like a normal jump, but spiralling round 180 or 360 to re-enter whichever way up it works out. And they have so much energy!! The last time I saw such acrobatic genius and energy in a mammal was seeing Riccardo, Gollito and Cheo in Margarita, and it's much the same. Apparently we don't know why they do all these tricks, but if it isn't for fun, it should be!
Hot chocolate, ginger nut cookies and then an energy bar help with the munchies, and as we head for the South Bay jetty I discover the nice lady is married to one of the boat skippers, has been there 2.5 years, and although a qualified kayak guide is much happier to be doing this job. The sun is well up now, and there's an almost post-coital glow to have seen it rise, and the dolphins enjoying their relaxed post-feed session - they eat at night here, when the local fish and conditions are best, because they don't have to dive so deep. Mmm. Nice.
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