The rendezvous !

Me swimming belly up

It´s around 1 p.m. I spot the dolphins, they come up from the south. We move out in two kayaks. The children are in one, I row my brother in law in the other.
We join the pod and Fabio goes in, I join him shortly after. We get adopted into the pod again, the group seems to actually enjoy our appearance. There are about 10 dolphins. Our friends swim slowly so we can keep up with them. The old guard swims with slow moves. The young adults are spirited and wiggle and dash from left to right. There is one calf in the group that is eventually discretely lead away.

The kids catch up. They don´t have the muscle power. We swap kayaks. The young Marco hops into our kayak so the girls can row faster. Charlotte let´s everybody else swim with her mask, is proud to have them experience these miracles but slowly and steadily grows nervous. I see her innerly tormented. We make a final move. She comes with me and Fabio goes into the other kayak.

There is another group of dolphins much further away. Our pod will propably meet up with them later on.

We have already moved up the coast for a few kilometers. Charlotte goes in. The dolphins are all around her. The plays, makes move in the water, makes sounds, swims belly up, engages, and the dolphins respond. I follow her with the kayak.

Then I go in and she takes over. While I´m down under she tells me a dolphin stuck his head straight out of the water, shook it thrice and disappeared, as if to say, come back in.

The group is extremely welcoming and communicative. We stay with them for a long while and then decide to return.

Studying

Here is the calf, he also checked us out and was then lead away

Part of the pod

Later, at around 4 p.m. I spot them again. This time they come from the north. Charlotte and I are together this time. We meet up with them swiftly. This is a big group of about 20 individuals. Here are the huge dolphins that I saw last week. They are really huge, and when you are right in the middle of 20 of these you feel quite small.
I spot yesterdays male with the cord still attached. I wished he would let me open that knot.

The moment we meet the whole group turns around and moves back up the coast. It really looks as if the first group met up with the second and told them about their encounter and decided to show us to the second group. The big pod literally takes us in and swims and plays with us. I don´t have words for this.
The dolphins seems to me so much closer to us than in the past. They come so close that often only centimeters remain between us and them. They study us and are without any fear. They engage in games. Still we have never touched any of them !

When swimming with dolphins it is best to dive down so they can see you entirely. You will also be on the same height and be part of their group instead of hanging above them and watching them like a lamp hanging from the ceiling. The trouble is that one is already out of breath from swimming with them. So when you dive down you have little breath left and the muscles scream for more oxygene. I´m doing apne exercises and I know that when your lungs start hurting that you have at least 50% more oxygene left. Helas, we are not built for water, this is a real limitation on us humans. Sometimes I wished I was a dolphin myself.

Battery problems again, so too few pictures.

Playing 

Hello there !

At around 6 p.m. the pod returns going down south. It is difficult to spot them. They are hunting and come up to breathe at long intervals. They are fast. No encounter.