Ralf from Germany

Welcome !

Another wind tunnel day. A strong steady wind blows down south. The Red Sea is angry.

My old childhood friend Ralf is on a visit. We decide to go to the sea during the week while the rest of the world works. The beach is all ours, there is no other soul around. 

Ralf brought two extreme kites with him and is excited about the wind. One of the kites is so big, if you don´t know how it works it will quickly take you to Timbuktu. You need strong biceps to control these kites. Ralf, former world champion in dragon boat racing, has his hands full.

Then I see them: Dolphins !

We hop into the kayak and go. Now, this is quite surprising, the dolphins stop and wait for us !

We get close and they stay right with us. I go in.... 

Chasing each other in circles

Now this is a group of 8 male dolphins. There are no calves. This is great news. This group will be fun !

The dolphins are curious, come and go. 

One dolphins comes very close, I recognize him. He is my friend with his scared lower jaw, the one I have on most of my pictures. He welcomes me literally. We swim together, I follow him. 

The dolphins are very relaxed.  

Following the pod

Then Ralf goes in. I think he is thrilled. He hadn´t imagined that you get so close that if you stretch out your hand you could touch them.

Ralf watching the pod

They returned again and again...

...and truly engaged

And then there is a huge male dolphin. He has a bad injury on his back. This size of dolphin is more  to be seen in the open sea. Did the group go back to the safety of the coast because of this injury ?
It looks as if this injury was caused by a fishing net.
Now in spite of this injury this beautiful 3m big dolphin is very curious and swam next to us - self assured and friendly.

At this point the dolphins open their communication channels again. You can hear the very subtle whistling or vibration.

This enormous male starred an ugly injury

Then Ralf goes back in and I follow him in the kayak. This way we move down the coast for approximately 1500m. Ralf is without a wetsuit and getting cold. We go in one last time together.

My friend with the scared jaw tries to catch a supermarkt plastic bag with his tail fin then picks it up with his front fin and pulls it along. So him as well is capable of this... Eventually he looses it and we both go after the bag. I pick up the bag and drag it along just like him.

It looks like he got caught in a fishing net

There were 8 adults and no calfs

They swam slowly to allow us to follow

Very friendly

After a phatastic and very long session with the dolphins its time to say good-bye. We turn around. Ralf is freezing. We go against the wind. Now paddling with him is like having a rocket engine in the trunk, like kayaking with Obelix (not Asterix). We both give everything and when we finally work ourselves back to our beach I´m completely exhausted. Ralf takes a hot shower and then does more kiting....

This was perfect !