No.79 – Swim with Dolphins

It was on our Honeymoon and we had the chance to do a trip of a lifetime…swimming with dolphins. Here is how the day went:

It took just under 2 hours to get there from our hotel and when we arrived we went first for a photo with a Tiger.
Then we went and had a kiss from a sealion called Lenny, it was so cool! Big sloppy fishy kiss!

We then got kitted out with life jackets and had a briefing about the dolphins, how to touch them and what the signs are for various tricks.

Then we walked down the pier and could see the dolphins swimming around we were quite deep out and the area of swimming was probably about the size of a football pitch.

There was a group of 7 of us so we walked the steps onto a platform in the water and were introduced to the trainer and the dolphin. We were told then to clap and as we clapped our hands, Dori the 8 year old dolphin did a series of jumps…they jump so high!! We then stepped to the edge of the platform with our palms flat in the water and she swum under our hands so we could feel her skin. She felt like a firm but slightly velvety rubber, they shed their skin every 2 hours.

Just after that another dolphin came along that was trying to be trained but wanted to have more fun with us so we had to move…it would have meant going back up the stairs and along the pier but she asked us if we were confident to swim and we said we were so we swam the length of the pool…difficult to do in a life jacket but so cool as i was close to Dori and could see her swimming underneath me….we really did get to swim with the dolphin!!

So we got to the other side and we each had a kiss from the dolphin, by crossing our hands in the water  and then lifting her head to our cheek and then had to return the favour by kissing her back on the chin. My husband made a new friend as she just stared at him for ages haha it was so sweet, even the trainer was laughing.

We also had a dorsal fin ride, we had to face out to see with our right arm out in the water and she swum out and came close to us and then we grabbed onto her fin with 2 hands and she pulled us really fast back to the platform.

We also got her to jump, we swam out then crossed our right arm over our body and then tapped the water twice, to call her over. when she touched our hand we moved our arm in an arc above our head and she jumped following our arm….she jumped so incredibly high and we have a great pic of her flying over Ian’s head!

We then swam with her belly to belly, so we put our right arm out whilst we faced the shore and she came up behind us and then onto her back so she was belly up and we grabbed onto her 2 fins and she pulled us to the platform again very fast and so cool!

We then got onto a surfboard and she came behind us and pushed our feet with her nose…that was amazing because you could really feel the force they have but she was also gentle at the same time.

We then stood on the platform and put both hands just above the water and she came and we grabbed hold of her 2 fins and danced with her.

At the end the other group had finished so we had another dolphin called Ariel come and join us…in the end we were in the water for 45 mins.

To finish off the dolphin talked to us to say bye bye

It was such an amazing experience made even better by the fact we were in their natural habitat, not a swimming pool. They are just awesome creatures and so highly intelligent. I dont think that we could ever recreate that experience again.

After we got out the water we went and watched the sealion show, that was very good and they did some clever tricks.

It was an amazing experience, think i’ll be talking about it forever!!!

Dori jumping over Ian’s head:

Swimming belly to belly with Dori:

Dancing with Dori:

Having a kiss of Lenny the Sealion:

Ian having a kiss from Dori: