White Caps Photography

Up early for our dolphin swim. We get our wetsuits on and jump on a small boat, we go 15 mins into the bay when we spot dolphins, there is a local pod which lives here and there are also visiting dolphins. We spot 3 small separate groups and stop the boat near one group. We quickly get our snorkelling gear organised and are out the boat in a style that reminded me of a parachute drop, "go, go", one by one.

We hit the water and despite wetsuits it is freezing and we all gasp, we are sort of getting used to it and treading water, adjusting our gear and putting our heads in, the captain is yelling "get you head in the water, look around, look, look around you", so we did and weren’t disappointed. We have since had many laughs over his style, you want to see dolphins, I’ll show you dolphins, you will not be disappointed, "get your head in the water!”. Lol.

They quickly lost interest so we got back on the boat for the 2nd drop, we are so excited you don’t think about anything else in the water and its shallow enough to just see the bottom, thankfully the guides are wearing shark repellent anklets, which when turned on (only when shark is spotted) they repel for 3 meters, Fred was sticking to them like glue.

They are so mystical to watch and the sun rays gave the whole scene a mystical touch.  I have always wanted to do this and I am not disspointed so far. 

Back on the boat to a little island colony of sea lions not far away. There is a little lagoon area sheltered by reef that we swim in. The guide jumped in and swam over to them to announce our arrival and he was soon followed back by a handful of sea lions. They are really inquisitive, and are rolling around and coming up close enticing us to play.

Apparently you have to watch them as if you interact and play too much they might play bite you, we keep a respectful distance but have no choice when they come up face to face with you. Soo cute. The mums come and check us out and then head back to sun themselves leaving the young ones to play. We have heaps of interaction with them and the guide dives in and plays with them with a pebble. We follow suit, they are the puppy dogs of the sea and apparently I felt this as my video recording has me saying “what a clever boy, who’s a clever puppy?” lol.

We kept swimming and playing in the water until there were only 4 of us left, and then it was just us 2. It was getting cold and we reluctantly got back on the boat and had a much needed hot chocolate. Everyone is smiling, what an experience.  Loving the underwater camera, not inly do we have memories but some photos too

Back to the dolphins and we jump in again, this time Fred and I are there first out and a dolphin brushed passed me as I hit the water, pretty close and scared the hell out of me. We stay in there until they are bored of us (despite or perhaps because of, my attempts to make dolphin noises under water - I sounded more like Dory from Nemo speaking whale "Heeelooooo mistar doolphin."

Well satisfied with the experience the journey home was silent as we all reflected on the day. Met a lovely couple on 7 month holiday, Brian and Gwen who we bump into a couple of times later in day and end up having some great chats with.

Back to Streaky Bay for lunch at the pub where our infectious enthusiasm convinced a stack of locals and visitors alike to go do this. Highly recommend it - for more information go to www.bairdbay.com.

We head to the jetty for some fishing, the only luck we had was 4 yellowfin whiting which were too small too keep so Fred cooked up a mean curry. He has now become the official camp cook as I try to catch up on blog.

Photos

Fav pic of the day:  Too many to pick from but love this, v close.