Swimming in Australia…With Dolphins
Saturday, October 27th, 2007I had seen dolphin trainers on TV splash the water lightly with their hands. A dolphin would magically appear out of the water. I stuck my hand through the fence, and started to do what I had witnessed on TV. At first, Max and Jan laughed, but in no time, something came out of the water. I rubbed my hand along the head of the dolphin. It soon realized that I had no fish, and swam away a bit disappointed.
Sea World on the Gold Coast offers exciting adventures where visitors can interact with some of the sea’s most exciting creatures. On this day, Max, Jan and I were to swim with sharks and dolphins.
There were two tanks filled with the sharks. When I say tanks, I mean habitats that are quite plush for a sea creature. In one tank there were humongous sharks, the kind that you see in the movies-large, and mean looking. I was quite unsure what tank we were to be snorkelling in, but soon I was flapping my flippers in the other tank swimming with stingrays, and small reef sharks. We were not supposed to touch, but I snuck a quick feel of a stingray. It felt like a soft sponge. It turned around and looked at me and I think he or she gave me a smile.
After riding some roller coasters and water rides, we moved on to our dolphin adventure. Swimming with dolphins was listed as one of the 100 things someone should do before they pass on, so, I was able to justify spending a foolish amount on the experience.
The dolphins feel like rubber, a soft malleable rubber. Our dolphin, Sparky, was quite a funny fella. Just over two years old, his mother was born at Sea World and he now takes to the family trade of entertaining guests like myself. He did flips, swam around me, jumped over me, let me touch his belly, and even gave me a kiss…all captured in photographs, naturally.
It was quite fun, swimming with dolphins. I will remember it for the rest of my days. Dolphins have a unique aura that surrounds them and rubs off as they let you touch their soft skin.