Swimming with the dolphins
We’ve always wanted to swim with dolphins in the open sea. Last weekend we were in Kizimkazi – a small fishermen village with a couple of hotels and a nice beach. Apparently there are around 350 bottlenose dolphins in the water just outside Kizimkazi and they like to play around people.
We met Mr. Happy, a local boat captain and we arranged a boat-trip for Sunday morning. When we met him in the morning he was real Mr. Happy- we didn’t need to go far to find the dolphins as they were just around 200 meters from the beach!
Jurgita about one and a half meter from at bottlenose dolphin.
So close to our boat!
Beautiful creatures gliding in the surface.
It seemed like there were different groups (or maybe families) of them swimming around. There were also 3-4 other small boats, some just watching, others planning to swim with them.
So how did it feel? Were we chasing the dolphins or not? The answer is both yes and no:
Yes, were going after them when they were swimming. (And there were some boats driving too fast so that some tourists could jump in the water in front of them… that’s sad!). No, because dolphins are smart animals and they can easily leave us if they want to.
Playing in the quiet water of the indian ocean.
Three dolphins just in front of Jurgita (left) and Andreas.
Our captain did his best to make sure we’d have a chance to swim with them shouting to us- jump out, look left, swim right and so on. But at some point we stayed on the boat, asked him to switch off his boat and watched them playing. And that was so amazing! There were six-seven dolphins swimming slowly around the boat. After a while, we put on our snorkeling-gear and jumped in the water. And yes, they were there- under us, on both sides and behind us! We could have touched them if we wanted to (We didn’t and hope most other people don’t!). Seeing these beautiful creatures under the water is amazing. They are huge!!
And they do come to you. If they want. And that’s how it should be.
Jurgita spotted to more dolphins.
A small kid hoping to se more of animals underwater
Moving away for this time! Hope to see you again.
Ann-Karin, Andreas (7) and Jurgita on their way up from the boat.
