Us swimming with the dolphins
We wake early, have breakfast, lock Lucy in the Van (air conditioning on of course) and drive the 50kms south the very remote village of Baird Bay.
After some confusion in directions we find the corrugated iron shed where the office is for the Baird Bay Ocean Eco Experience. We are greeted by a delightful young man by the name of Troy who is to be our guide for the day. Alan and Trish Payne moved here to Baird Bay 17 years ago to retire. Before they knew it they had a very lucrative and popular business in taking tourists out to swim with the seals and dolphins. They work closely with the Marine Mammal Centre in protecting these wonderful ocean creatures.
Firstly we meet our other travelling companions – 9 of us altogether, and then we are instructed to put on our wet suits. These are mainly to keep us afloat and to keep out the cold. We are then taken to our large aluminium vessel (exactly the one that is shown on television advertising Tourism South Australia).
Alan is the skipper, instructs us on some safety rules – not only for our sake but for the seals and dolphins as well and give us some vital information. And before long we are motoring out through the crystal clear water of the bay.
The rarest of the seal species in Australian waters and amongst the rarest in the world, the Australian Sea Lion is endemic only to Australia.
Australian Sea Lion population is estimated to be around 12000. This figure is derived from pup counts during a pupping season and only in accessible colonies, so the adult Sea Lion figure is not determined accurately and given numbers can only be a guide.
Troy spots a pod of dolphins and Alan instructs us to enter the water ‘as quickly as possible’!!!! I am a little apprehensive but do as we are told. The water is quite cool – 17 degrees approx. but I am so keen to see these sea animals I take no notice of the water temperature.
In my goggles I put my head under and ‘oh my god’ these 2 beautiful huge dolphins glide just under me. I am ecstatic. I am now surrounded by many dolphins as they glide so close past me. I am not sure where to look as they dart in and out from under my feet. Troy is having a wonderful time – they obviously know him as they are having a game with him. It is the most amazing site. For these huge creatures to have so much trust in us.
We spend about 10 minutes ‘playing with them’ and then we get back onto the boat and head across the bay to the Sea Lion Colony. There are quite a few older ones sunning themselves on the beach but all of a sudden we see the younger ones coming towards us. We are instructed again to go into the water ‘as quickly as possible’ again. It is like swimming with playful little Labrador pups. They love the games and the older ones are happy to come face to face with you as they are just as inquisitive of us as we are of them.
I love the advertisement where the lady pops her head out of the water and says to ‘Alan’ how long can we do this for! He replies until they get bored with it’. She says, how could anyone ever get bored with this and he replies, I wasn’t talking about the people.
This is so true. These little creatures were happy to have us play with them – It is wonderful to see that they are so trusting and it is hard to believe that dolphins and sea lions main predator is the human.
In some parts of the world, they are hunted for food and in some places are clubbed and shot for interfering in scale-fishing practices and, sadly, some are killed ‘for the fun of it’. Fishing and trawl nets are the biggest killers of dolphins with many hundreds falling victim each year.
If ever you are here in South Australia, and particularly the Eyre Peninsula, it is certainly a must and one of the highlights so far.
After checking with the Post Office (our mail had still not arrived) so we brought fresh hot pies for lunch and headed back to camp happy to spend the afternoon relaxing, reading and swimming.
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