port stephens | Linnea & Gustav

Wild Dolphin Swim

We booked the dolphin swim for the first time in September, which was one of the first swims of the season, but due to bad weather they had to cancel it twice in a row, and finally we rebooked the swim for this late October weekend.

The cell phone showing the time shortly after our alarm

The morning alarm went off at 3.30 am, since we had to be ready at 4 am when one of the crew members on the boat had offered to pick us up in Mayfield and drive us to Nelson Bay, Port Stephens where the boat awaited us. Liz was the name of the crew member, and when she picked us up there was a heavy fog outside, which we thought was quite cool and fitting since it was very close to Halloween.

The ride to Port Stephens went well, we were only a bit concerned when we saw thunderclouds and lightning on the side of the freeway when we were approaching our destination. But the sky was clear and the water calm when we arrived at the marina, so we took a sigh of relief that we didn’t have to rebook our swim once again.

We met the rest of the crew and they quickly prepared the boat and made sure everyone filled in the liability waiver, took a sea sickness pill and got fitted with a wetsuit. After that we got geared up with a snorkel and a pair of goggles, as well as a safety harness. We had a quick run-through how to use it, and how the procedure went when our assigned group got called to get in the net at the front of the boat and get in the water. We went into the water five people at a time, and I (Linnea) got assigned to group one while Gustav was in group four.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) we were only 16 passengers on the boat out of 20 that day, which meant that Gustav was alone in his group. Liz quickly assured us though that it meant that the people from group one could go in the water a second time with him, which was music to my ears since I didn’t mind spending more time in the water with the dolphins.

We headed out of the marina at 5.20 am, and the CEO of Dolphin Swim Australia introduced himself and the rest of the crew as we went out into the Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Park. He told us about the history of the company and, as we had read previously on the website, that this is the only tour where you swim with actual wild dolphins in their natural habitat. Since the dolphins constantly move around, there are different groups every day that approach the boat, and the crew almost never see the same individual dolphin. The company has a special permit to operate on, which they have gotten by promising that they won’t disturb the dolphins and that they approach the boat by their own will. It almost sounds too good when you first hear it as a tourist, but the dolphins actually want to swim in the waves next to the boat and they are very playful.

It didn’t take long until the CEO spotted the first gang of dolphins when we got out on the water. The extremely early start also ensured that we were the only boat as far as the eye could see and according to Liz dolphins are the most active in the morning.

I grabbed on to the railing at the front of the boat, and at our dive masters signal, group one climbed into the net, hooked our safety line to the rope attached under the boat, and sat in the net ready to jump in the water as soon as we heard the signal. We had at least seven dolphins swimming close to the boat, and except the unavoidable gulp of salt water that came into my mouth when I launched myself into the water, the feeling was amazing.

In the water with a dolphin just ahead (it's Linnea reaching for it) — In the water with a dolphin just ahead (it’s Linnea reaching for it)

After figuring out exactly how I should angle my head to not get more water in my snorkel, I could breathe and focus on the amazing creatures swimming right next to me. The boat was holding the same speed as the dolphins swam in, so all you had to do was hold on to the rope and relax. About ten minutes had passed before the drive master gave a signal and the boat stopped. Everyone either pulled themselves up or got heaved into the net again. After we had got up the next group prepared themselves to go in.

So far the journey had been amazing, but after getting up out of the water my stomach started protesting. I hadn’t eaten anything all morning, and since I was in the first group I hadn’t had time to try the breakfast onboard. In hindsight, I think the biggest cause for my sea sickness was the fact that I swallowed quite a bit of salt water on an empty stomach.

Liz was quick to take care of me, she had a supporting role on the ship and it was good that she was there since I wasn’t the only one getting sea sick. Three of the five people from the first group (including me) got to sit at the rear of the boat where the bounce of the waves was considerably less. I sat there for a long time trying to get better so that I could eat something, but I guess I have to admit that I don’t have “sea legs”.

Suddenly there was a huge fin submerging from the water about 20-30 meters to the left of the boat. The captain was quick on the speakers and said: “on your left you can see a humpback whale waving towards us”. The whale raised its huge fin straight up in the air and back down about three times, and it actually looked like it was saying “Hi there!”.

A couple of dolphins just under the surface

About two and a half hours into the ride, the CEO finally spotted another group of dolphins and it was time for Gustav and me to get ready. We got into the water, but as soon as we did the dolphins swam away heading towards their breakfast most likely. Since we didn’t want to disturb their feeding, we got up on the boat again and started looking for another group. It didn’t take very long, but my stomach started protesting again and my legs literally started shaking. Liz asked if I wanted to go again, and I said that I really wanted to and that I actually felt better in the water than I did on the boat.

We got in the net a second time, but this time the dolphins swam too quickly, so as soon as the boat stopped to let us in the water they were ahead of us. The dive master told us to get back in the net and stay there while they caught up with the dolphins. It was very fun to be in the net while the boat was moving, and this time when we got in the water (Gustav’s third dip and my fourth) we experienced the serenity of being under the surface and feeling like the only thing that existed was the dolphins and us. It felt like we couldn’t get enough of it, but too quickly the swim was over and we got back on the boat.

Getting ready for the swim — Chilling in the net between the swims

The rest of the tour swept by while we returned all the gear and changed from the wetsuits to our normal clothes. They had a hot shower on the boat so that you could wash some of the salt water off you, and it was much appreciated for the warmth as well since having a wet wetsuit on for four hours had made us quite cold. We got a certificate of achievement from the CEO and thanked the whole crew as we approached the marina.

Liz asked if we wanted a ride with her back to Newcastle, but we had plans to explore Port Stephens some more after we had docked.

All in all, I loved the swim even though I got sea sick, and we were really happy to have done it especially after our several rebookings.

I’d recommend this swim to all dolphin lovers out there, even though I would say I haven’t been obsessed with them since I was a child, my 11-year-old self had a field day.

Lots of love,
Linnea

Well, I guess I’ll continue – Gus.

Climbing Mount Tomaree

From the marina, we walked towards Mount Tomaree, a small mountain and good lookout point close to the water. The summit stands at 161 metres above the water.

On our way towards the mountain, we stopped at a grocery store at Shoal Bay and bought an ice cream each. When we were sitting there eating all of a sudden we heard people talking Swedish. It was two couples with their children. This was pretty much the first time we found Swedes that weren’t students at UoN.

We walked on, the sun had really broken out and the thunderclouds from the morning were nowhere to be seen. I had dressed in the morning expecting cold weather and rain and was therefore wearing trousers and at this point I started to regret my decision.

We reached the foot of the mountain and started walking in through the forest covering the mountain. After much climbing (well, it was rather strained walking) we reached the summit. We were not the only ones there and a nice woman asked if we wanted her to take a picture, something we very much didn’t mind and it was really kind of her.

The very same ship we went on in the morning

When looking out from the summit, we saw the same ship we went on in the morning coming back in towards the marina. After we had walked a couple of laps around the summit and read the signs, we started to walk down again.

For most of the walk down nothing special happened, but then we saw a guy standing quiet on the path looking in the bushes. When he saw us, he made a shushing motion and pointed into the bushes. When we got closer, we saw a goanna walking through the bush.

Linnea standing on the shoreline at Shoal Bay

Before going back home on the bus, we had a bit of a snack and sat down at the beach. After some time, we went to the bus stop that was located on the street next to the beach with a couple of minutes to spare.

/ Gus

For the first day of Orientation Week, Gustav and I had signed up for the Sand and Shark Tour. We biked to Uni from our apartment for the first time that day. The bus went at 10 am from Uni to Port Stephens, which took about 45 minutes. We had heard beforehand from Jenny and Grahame that Port Stephens is well worth a visit since the beaches are even whiter there than in Newcastle.

The first activity of the day was sand boarding, so we arrived at the sand dunes in Port Stephens that at first glance looks a lot like a desert. The bus driver shared some interesting facts as we were driving, one of them being that the triangular stones you see in the picture above were made and put alongside the coast in Australia in fear of a military attack with tanks. So the stones would prevent the tanks from getting across.

After a very bumpy bus ride getting out on the dunes, we were ready to go sand boarding. We had a quick instruction how to either sit or stand on the board, and most people decided to try the boarding sitting down first after seeing how steep the hill was.

It was very fun going down actually, but I kept thinking how incredibly easy it would be for someone getting seriously hurt by doing this. And for my second go, I decided to take on the steepest part of the hill, on the right side in the picture above. That was a mistake. When I just had a few meters left of the hill, I did a somersault and face planted hard getting sand all over my body. The sand even went up my nose and into my ears, I discovered afterwards trying to brush it off. I didn’t get hurt, though. At 0:30 in the video you can see me getting up from my tumble unharmed.

When we felt finished and quite exhausted going up and down the hill, it was time to head back over the dunes on one of the small buses and get back on the big bus for the second activity of the day, which was a visit to Murray’s Brewery.

There we first got a guided tour of the brewery, the man in charge explained the whole process their beer go through from malt to finished beer. The nicest part I thought was that Murray’s aren’t trying to become a huge producer of beer, they are more into exploring different flavour and according to the tour guide, they have a new beer for you to try every week. That means that they are constantly making small changes in their process and trying new things.

An interesting fact was also that they let their beer self-carbonate in the bottle after filling it up instead of artificially carbonating it straight away like many of the big companies do. This means that it takes Murray’s about five weeks to make a beer start to finish, while the big companies have their beer done in five days. That’s a classic example of quantitive vs. quality according to me.

Murray’s Whale Ale was actually the first beer Gustav tried when we got here; Grahame said it was one of the best local ones if I remember correctly.

When we were finished with the tour, we had a beer and wine tasting, which was a nice surprise to us. We tried three different kinds of beer and three different wines. I’m more of a wine person (I know, shocker), and the rosé we tried was so delicious I’m looking into buying a couple of bottles when we get back to Sweden.

After getting a bit tipsy from downing all the beer and wine, we were finally served lunch. We got a pizza buffet with french fries; nobody says no to that! The group had people from all over the world, and at lunch, we got talking with a bunch of new people. The conversation naturally focused on languages, for some reason we ended up talking about what mushrooms are called in Norwegian, German, Swedish and Cantonese (which is the main language in Hong Kong). During the whole day, we also talked to students coming from Denmark, USA and the UK.

With our bellies full and spirits on top we went back on the bus heading to the third and final activity of the day, the Irukandji Shark and Ray Encounter.

We were given the option of either getting on waders or a wetsuit. Since I had never worn a wetsuit before I wanted to try it and Gustav went with the waders which you could wear over your regular clothes.

Once I had squeezed into the wetsuit, I was eager to get in the tank with the rays. First, we learned how you’re supposed to feed the rays. They were not shy at all, and you could pet them as much as you wanted as long as you didn’t grab on to them because it could damage their skin and kept your fingers away from their mouth.

Once we had learned that we could go in the ray and shark tank, I made the discovery of that there were sharks in the tank half way down the stairs, but I quickly discovered that they weren’t so bad as their rumour says.

Now we can check petting rays and sharks off our bucket list! Experience from the encounter is that rays feel much slimier than sharks which have a rougher skin. At the end of the encounter, we also got to go in the tank with the huge sharks. The only difference was that we had a thin plastic wall between the sharks and us then. The largest one they called Gigantor, and you don’t feel very cocky with him swimming towards you. After feeling the rough skin of Gigantor (mind you, we had gloves on), we got changed and tried our best to get the fishy smell out.

All in all, a packed day and a very long post to reflect it! Hope you made it through, we’re very happy that we did anyway.

Lots of love / Linnea

(Source: http://66.media.tumblr.com/)

Tag: port stephens

Wild Dolphin Swim and Climbing Mt Tomaree (29 October)

Wild Dolphin Swim

Climbing Mount Tomaree

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Monday, 18 July

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Wild Dolphin Swim

Climbing Mount Tomaree

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