The Good, The Bad and The Nauseating.

Wednesday 29th April

Today was quite the day, it was both good and bad. It began quite well – I got up quite early, got dressed and then walked through town. It was actually quite a walk – maybe 30 minutes, but I didn’t really mind, it was a really nice morning. Eventually I reached my destination - the Dolphin Encounter offices – yep, today I am going to swim with Dolphins! Yay for once in a lifetime opportunities!

They checked us in and then got us all our gear – wetsuit, snorkel mask, flippers – it was actually pretty fun getting all dressed up! They gave us the usual safety talk and the whole “Dolphins are wild animals so we can’t guarantee that you will get to swim with them” talk and then we got into the bus! We divided into two boats and I was in a boat with a bunch of Irish girls, which was actually quite nice because I had met them before. The Dolphins were swimming really close to the shore so we found them really quickly – the Dolphins I was swimming with were Dusky Dolphins, so they are smaller than the Dolphins you usually see. They are also described as “Dolphins on Speed” as in the drug because they are just so hyper! They are found in pretty large pods – anywhere from 100 to 2,000 Dolphins can be in a pod. We had about 150-200 Dolphins in our pod so that was really amazing. You can’t quite describe what it’s like to see 200 Dolphins jumping in and out of the water.

We all sat along the end of the boat and we drove in front of the pod, then the Captain blew a horn and we all had to jump into the water. You have to be quick or you will miss them because they are so fast and they just keep swimming – they must think that humans are really boring because they don’t take much notice of you. We jumped in and out of the water about 6 or 7 times and we were told to sing and make noise in the water to attract the Dolphins attention. I had a total mind blank and the only songs I could think of were Ave Maria and Jingle Bells – so that’s what I sang, with a snorkel mask on. I looked like such an idiot. I also spend a lot of time diving under the water and doing stupid underwater spins – this gets the Dolphins attention and sometimes they will circle you. Most of the time I just got in their way, but there were a few Dolphins that seemed interested in me – I managed to make eye contact with a few and they swam around and under me, which was really nice. I felt quite bad for the Dolphins – I really did do everything I could possibly do to get in their way – which is totally the way to do it, they always swim around you and they get really close! I bought an underwater camera to take some pictures – but they are soooo fast, I think I have about 25 blurry pictures of grey water!

When we had finished swimming with them we got back on the boat, warmed up, changed, had hot chocolate and took some pictures of the Dolphins swimming beside the boat – then we headed back to the Dolphin Encounter offices. I would really recommend swimming with Dolphins – it is a really nice experience – it isn’t like Seaworld or Free Willy – they don’t swim off with you holding on to their dorsal fin and they don’t let you stick your hands into their mouths – and I don’t blame them. At the end of the day they really are wild animals and you are in their territory, so they don’t really owe you anything. I was just happy that I got to see them up close, they were literally an inch from me and they were just doing their own thing. Also, if you go thinking that you will be able to keep up with them, then you are so wrong. They are incredibly fast and agile and they are just rocking out, in their environment – that alone is worth seeing.
The day has been going really well so I got some lunch (which was horrible – Vegetable Soup, I think not. Vegetable soup isn’t meant to be thick and spicy with bits of Bacon in it) and then headed to the Whale Watching offices. I was meant to go Whale Watching yesterday but that was cancelled so they managed to fit me in.

The boats were late but we eventually go on and everything was fine – until we got out of the harbour. Dear Lord, I am not even joking – this was worse than the Ferry from Hell to Stewart Island. It was, without a doubt, my worst boat experience ever. The water was ridiculously rough – the boat was being thrown from side to side – it was so bad that you weren’t allowed to stand up at all and the back deck was closed off. We couldn’t find any Whales, so we went travelled 20 miles out to sea, just in case one decided to pop in and say hello. No Whales decided to pop in and say hello. Instead Mr Sea Sickness popped in to say hello. Not to me personally, I was focusing as hard as I could on not being sick, it was extremely difficult, but I managed it, but still, there were at least a dozen people being sick, which is even worse when you are enclosed in a small space. I was literally fighting the urge to throw myself off the boat – swimming back to shore would have been a more pleasant experience, even if it was 20 miles away. Eventually the Captain turned back and the journey back seemed even longer. I was literally at the point where I just wanted to be back on dry land – you know when you want something so badly that it actually hurts and you just want to cry, that’s how I felt being on that boat. It was like nothing else in the world mattered, I just needed to be off the boat. This was all made worse by the “Tour Guide” who literally talked the whole way there and the whole way back. I’m honestly not even exaggerating – she spoke the entire time. There was about ten minutes of silence in the two hours that we were on the water. She didn’t even have anything to say. She just talked and talked and talked. Every time you thought she was finished, she started again. She told us everything there was to know about Whales and Dolphins and Birds. She told us that people had often seen Killer Whales (Orca) in the area – raising my hopes, but then she told us that there is no way we would see any today because of the stormy conditions. Listening to her caused me physical pain. The American Government should recruit her – forget waterboarding – try Whale Watching with this lady as your host. But in all seriousness, torture is wrong and it isn’t something to joke about, but really, she would be employee of the month. Right, I’m stopping.

After what seemed like hours we got back to the Whale Watching office. We got in line to receive our refund – and then I found out that they only refunded 80% of what you paid. This made me quite angry. I know that 80% is better than nothing, but I was severely traumatised. I didn’t see a Whale, I had to witness a vast number or people throwing up, the Tour Guide Host Lady made me want to claw my ears off with her nonstop talking and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go a boat again, which just ruins my dream of sailing around Ballyholme Bay. This might also damage my spiritual wellbeing – I will never be able to read the story of Jonah and the Whale, there’s just too much history, too many bad memories.

After receiving my refund and telling the lady that it was the worst experience of my holiday and that I would never be able to go on a boat again, I went back to the Hostel, made some Coco Pops and went to bed. I probably had nightmares about boats, but again, I’m trying to forget about that, it was a very difficult time for me.

Xx