Rocktail Bay
Serena Reid-Scott, Destination Expert.
We got woken up at dawn in our a-frame tree house with a tray of coffee, tea and rusks. Once awake we walked down the tree to meet with our guide who was taking us to the dive centre. During our drive along the dusty, sandy roads we witnessed a beautiful sunrise taking place over the sandunes - a good omen for the day ahead.
We were off to try and find dolphins and whales and if we were lucky to swim with them.
Once at the dive centre and we had been briefed by Darryl about the boat launch through the surf, we got kitted up in our 5mm wetsuits and were ready to go.
On our way down we could see the Vervet monkeys sunbathing in the dune forest to warm themselves up from the night before.
The surf launch is one of the most exhilarating experiences you could get, your feet tucked in, and whilst holding on tight to the ropes you slide over the surf coming towards you.
Immediately as we handed over our lifejackets we spotted the first pod of dolphins. At our dive master's signal we quietly entered the water, with our heads underwater we could start hearing the clicks of the dolphins all around us. Looking everywhere around us to decipher where they were coming from, they suddenly appeared under us. They came so close to us you could even see the scars on their bodies. Everywhere you looked they seemed to be looking straight back at us. Today these bottlenoses were not playing but travelling, hundreds of them together on a mission. Soon we were left just looking at ourselves, all grinning like children.
Humpback Whales were out that day, we could see them breaching from far away. Sadly just too far to get to as the wind started picking up and it was becoming increasingly difficult to get to them. We counted eagerly how many breaches we saw in the last half an hour of our trip -amazingly nine altogether!
