I had asked about the conditions on the water when I registered and I took two Dramamine right then which was about 45 minutes before we pulled out. I was so glad later that I did. They had said numbers of people were sick on the morning trip. It really wasn’t that rough out but there were 1 ½ meter swells that rocked us pretty good. It got choppier later in the afternoon. We had two or three people on our trip that got sick and I don’t think ever looked for a dolphin! I got on top with the captain for awhile with my binoculars to spot the pods. You can find them by the splashes of white off in the horizon. We located one pod that he said was about half of the size of the one they’d seen in the morning. We stopped about four times for the swimmers to get out but it was almost like the dolphin were gone before they got in the water. They just kept right on going and didn’t stop to socialize. The swimmers wore wet suits, caps, gloves, and booties - the whole bit! The water was cold. I had chosen not to do that and was regretting my decision for a little while but at this point felt like I’d made the right decision. I got such a good view of them from the boat and the swimmers were missing it. We moved on then to search for another pod. We located one and made connection with them. Some of the swimmers got in two or three good swims with that group. The dolphins were playful and would swim circles around them and often jumping. It was fun to watch. I’m sure that they had to look pretty quickly underwater to catch a glimpse! One told me later you never saw them swimming up to you which is where the instinct to look is. They would swim up from behind and be past them in an instant. Those swimmers had to be freezing. The wind was strong and it was cold. The boat had tanks of hot water and the swimmers filled their wet suits with it when they came in the last time. It brought smiles to their faces.

These were dusky dolphins, which are the second smallest variety. They are the most acrobatic variety of all. They would jump do a series of jumps – like 10 or 12 times in a row. There always seemed to be a "lead dog" to set their direction. It was so beautiful to see!. Another option here was to go whale watching. We could see that boat off in the distance and I could see the spray from the whale. The helicopter circling would locate the whale and radio them. Our boat was only licensed to watch dolphin so we aren’t allowed to get in close.

Andrew napped a little, checked out the village and ate while I was gone. He’s still not feeling well and sure didn’t want to get cold or wet. He was waiting for me at the shop at 4:00 p.m. when I got back. I was starving so he knew right where to go eat. I had veggie quiche and he got an order of veggie nachos. Both were great. We started out then to walk to the peninsula to see the seal colony. We knew it’d be pretty far but it turned out to be farther than that! We’d almost come to the decision to turn around and we’d see a curve. We’d think it’d be right around the curve. We did that several times. Maybe it was 10 k and of course the same back. When we saw the parking lot we thought we were there. That’s really where the hiking began. There were some seals out on rocks there that you could see but when you went out that way a bit you realized water would prevent you from going across to them. We started hiking across the rocks in another direction. This was tough on my ankle but I was determined after coming this far I was not quitting. We walked around a couple of large coves and rocky headlands. It got more remote and only the diehards go that far. It was lovely and well worth it. There were beautiful views. You really have to pay attention because the seals blend into the environment so well and just look like rocks. Binoculars made it easier. I found one group snoozing and no spectators anywhere around. When I finally got there and sat down to observe them I wasn’t sure I’d ever get up! If the glacier made my foot sore this hike on all these rocks was surely going to be worse!

The seals will tolerate you to a certain closeness. They will watch you closely if you’re beginning to get on the verge of being too close and will totally ignore you when they are comfortable with your distance. We figured out what that distance was and that’s where we perched. We didn’t see any tiny babies in this group like we’d seen in the group at Cape Foulwind. These were fur seals and we could really see the texture of it at this distance. We could also get a better feel for the ages of the seals at this distance. It was beginning to get late and we had a long way back so we began retracing our steps. It’s a good thing it’s light till 9:30 p.m. or so. In the marshy area around one lagoon we found one lone penguin in the broad daylight. There must have been something wrong with it. It looked like a blue penguin – it was bigger than the fairy penguins we saw. We saw more sea gulls on this walk than I’ve probably seen in my lifetime. All along this area we hiked there were rookeries in the rocks. There were 100’s or 1000’s of baby chicks. They were fuzzy little things and the whole bunch with adults included were squawking!! It was a pretty noisy walk!!

The route back to town was just in reverse and seemed longer!! We passed sheep pastures on the side of the road away from the water. At one spot one caught my eye with movement and we stopped to watch it. We realized then that a sheep was stuck in mud in the bottom of an opening of a crevice that went up the hill. Three sheep were eating up above there so we assumed this one had fallen. It could not get out no matter how hard it tried and we had no idea how long it had been there. We realized after watching it that it would die right there. I couldn’t stand that and Andrew knew it. He helped me get through the fence. I walked up and around it so I wouldn’t scare it any deeper in but in the direction that it might get out. They are very skittish creatures. I guess we would be too if every human that came at us sheared us!! I did scare it and it tried it’s best to get away from me but it couldn’t get out even then. I only had the ledge the width of sheep hooves to try to stand on. I wasn’t sure how to get to it. I could just see the two of us stuck in there. I was holding on to clumps of grass and trying to lower my body down. I stuck my foot under its rump and tried to hoist it up enough for it to come out. After about three heaves we got it moved far enough forward that it did get out. Was that sheep happy! It went bleating across the hill to two others that completely ignored it and showed no sympathy. Then it went to join the ones above where it had been. Probably got no sympathy there either. After all that dried on that critter I bet he was heavy and that fleece was worthless. At this point I realized I’d had my camera around my neck the whole time and hadn’t taken a picture. What a shot I missed!!