On the 15th of January, it was starching hot in the house during the school holidays in Brisbane, and I decided to take the kids to Seaworld on the Gold Coast, 1h30mn drive from our place.
Oscar reckoned 'he had never been there' ... isn't that great ? It must have been the third time for him, but I suppose it must be all blurred in his memory, since he was 5 years old last time and his grand-parents from France were here. How many times do you do something for the first time at this age ? I suppose it is the same memory problem with the grand-parents ??? What a joy! ... like a never ending party, yeah!
We arrived at Seaworld just when they were opening the doors and I went straight to the 'animal experience' counter. It was already full for the children spots, but there was one adult spot, ... so well ... I was not going to let such a chance pass me by :)!
We had an half an hour briefing induction speech ... well, you do have to speak English ... and they check ... yes, a dolphin CAN knock you out because it is much faster than you in the water (35km/h) ... so you are not so 'relaxed' anymore, it is not going to be a casual encounter with 'Flipper'.
The instructors are the dolphins trainers, it is superbly well organised and under control, so much so, the instructor singled me out, and asked me (1) to take my wedding ring off, (2) to take my toe ring out. I did not know these classified as 'jewellery'. ... a dolphin can be a very demanding encounter indeed : they wanted to see the real me :)
My boundaries were already pushed a bit :)
I was the first one to get in the water among a group of 7 people about to experience their first dolphin encounter. I did not feel ANY fear whatsoever, completely oblivious to any possible danger at that moment, completely unreasonable indeed.
Two of the dolphins had been rescued from fishermen nets and two were born here. I noticed that one had some scratches near his head, and asked the instructor about it. He explained that these two were very young males, and the female were tough on them 'because they were not experienced enough' ... tough world out there guys, you must be so happy you are humans!
It first started with the dolphins passing by you, and you were encouraged to make contact with them, by simply stroking them on their back as they passed by. The skin is incredibly soft, just like human skin, and it is such a gracious animal, beautiful movements.
Then, you learn some tricks to play with them: if you click your fingers, they start talking (you know, just like the sound you make clicking your tongue on your palette to show disagreement in French ... well some of you will know what I mean. Then, you learn to turn around, and the dolphin will imitate you, turn around just like you did, and you can do it again, ..."no it was not a dream".
You can even pinch yourself, if you are not sure.
Then, you are asked to swim flat on your tummy and with your mask, look underwater and you will see the dolphins zooming under you .. and yes, then, you get a feel for their speed, you do realise that THEY are the powerful one, you are in THEIR environment, water !
At the end, you have a bit of play time, it is more like a big dance, with the dolphins swimming all around you, just like children you cannot keep track of.
But you know, what is really striking is their glaze: they DO look at you, or so it seems, and they look at you for a while, as if they concentrated on you, an intelligent gaze, and then, they swim by.
So beautiful creatures! That day, on the 15th of July 2010, YES, I did feel privileged.
A glimpse of true happiness.
Such days are those to hang on when all seems doom and gloom!
During that time, the children were happily playing with mobile phone games on the lawn nearby. When I asked them why they did not come closer (for god sakes, even some total strangers were taking pictures of me interacting with the dolphin), they said (1) they ALREADY had seen dolphins, and (2) they had ALREADY seen me, right!
But Oscar LOVED the furry pinguins ...
