the best day ever in the known universe so far

Unbelievable day. Unbelievable, by far the best day of my holiday by a country mile.
We get up early as we have to meet the dolphin boat at 7.30 am and it?s a good 45 minutes drive to the old pier at rockingham.

The basic plan is that we go and swim with wild dolphins, however this particular dolphin encounter does not and will not feed the dolphins in anyway or try to influence their interaction with humans in any negative form.

Basically what happens is that the boat drives around looking for dolphins (wild ones) then drops the swimmers in the sea and if the dolphins want to play or swim away its up to them. Theres a place north of perth at Monkey Mia that the dolphins are so tame that they practically beach themselves everyday as they know they will be getting fed, I don?t really agree that we should be influencing wild animals like this and they have simply become a tourist attraction. This tour is definitely much more ethical at preserving their natural behaviours.

I have swam with dolphins in captivity once before, but this was a totally different experience altogether. Theres not even any guarantee we will even see any dolphins never mind be able to interact with them.

The day starts off when we meet the boat, we meet a nice couple from somewhere else in Oz and we get talking to them and they are asking about the Uk. I am slagging the welsh ( remember this point). There is a few other people arriving and a coach load of Japanese women. About 14 or so of us in total. Theres introductions all round and sure enough one girl says shes from Wales. I hope that she hasn?t heard me and at the point that she says she is from the valleys, dad lets out this almighty laugh and looks at me. I plead daft.

The skipper briefs us on safety and life jacket protection and introduces us to his young crew, oldest being about 20 I would guess. We get kitted up in wet suits and put into small groups. One person from each group gets issued with a shark shield, which is basically a gadget that straps to your ankle with a big long tail that gives off an electrical pulse to ward off evil sharks. I get briefed on it for my group, strap it to my ankle and get told not to touch it unless its switched off and only to switch it on while in the water. Sounds easy enough I reckon especially if its going to stop me from being shark bait and needing a bigger boat.

We get in the water in little small groups, holding onto the person in fronts swim belt with one hand, snorkel masks and tubes on, faces in the water and get towed behind the swim leader who has like a cool hand held water scooter.

First time in the water, dad takes a mouthful of salt water and nearly drowns. Doesn?t stop him from getting back in the second time, but he almost turns green and has to bail literally ten seconds from falling in. Probably his own fault for trying to talk the the driver rather than keep the sea from coming into his mouth. Nice one auld fella.

If the dolphins disappear or don?t want to play, we get back on the boat, start up the engines and move on. I see about half a dozen dolphins swim past us, under us and then go about their daily routine. We also see a very playful seal who is really interested in everything and its just bobbing and weaving in around everybody, it was truly amazing.

I get onto the boat but my shark shield must not have been switched off properly as when I grab it to bring it on board, I get a right jolt from it, a lot like touching an electrified fence. Oh that smarted a bit. After a few jolts of getting zigga ziggad after various in and out of the boats, I pass it off to the Pom. (Englishman.) I can still actually feel the nerves in my hand twitching ever now and then, it was a like holding a set of jump leads.

The young workers on the boat were really cool, there was sam who was 18 and paying his own way through school, working on the boats, he had hair like a hedgehog and was just mad for it. Then there was shark girl, I cant remember her proper name but I am calling her shark girl as she had previously survived a shark attack. Her legs were literally like a patchwork quilt of scars, cant believe she even had the bottle to get back in the water never mind be a swim leader everyday.

Turns out she was out free diving one day (with her shark shield off) and seen a 3 meter grey shape below her approaching fast, she had the foresight to punch it in the face then while it was chewing on her leg, she managed to switch on her shark shield which saved her life basically. She had a tattoo on her back which read what doesn?t kill you makes you stronger and she said that they had to extract sharks teeth out of her leg where they had dislodged into her bones. Talk about Brave and back in the water.

Anways, they were both really cool and everbody had a fab time apart from two of the Japanese ladies who were very very seasick as the boat was going through some considerably large waves. I was nervous at first about getting in the water in such large swells, but you kind of just float along with them in the open water, its strange as they have nothing to crash off and you have your face and snorkel in the water most of the time looking for dolphins.

If being in the water with the dolphins and seal wasn?t enough, as we head for home the skipper puts the power on in the boat and it causes a massive wake of frothy water. The dolphins decide that they are going to go wake surfing and are catching some air using our surf. I cant get a good shot of them with the camera as it re-acts to action shots far too slow, but todays picture is the best of the bunch.
I simply had an excellent time, the absolute experience of a lifetime that I would recommend to anyone. Nothing hugely funny happened today, it was just phenominal.

We have dinner and I swear that I see a women that could be tina turners chinese sister.

Today is dad and I?s last day of holiday together and we have agreed that tomorrow I will take him and drop him off at Eric and Kayes house and pick him up on my way to the airport, so Im on me jack jones for a few days. Anybody have an suggestions what I should do, Im thinking skydiving ?