Swimming with Seals

I got up at 6:40 am this morning. Had some breakfast first and then started to pack all my stuff as quiet as possible. It was pretty calm on the campground in the beginning but around 7:30am there was already quite a few kids awake again.
I left from there at 8:20am to drive to Queenscliff to meet up with the team from the Seal Swim Tour. Its an 30 minutes drive down there. Wasn't so easy to find a place to park but as i have sorted that out I went there to check-in, get my gear and try it on.
All went very smooth. There was even a German girl working and she tried to encourage me to try diving. Will see if I can motivate myself to it's sooner or later.
When everyone was ready, we drove to the marina with our own cars, loaded everything on to the boat and was good to go and leave Queenscliff. Almost everyone is diving today. So far it's just me and two older ladies that are going to snorkel, but we have some people to pick up at Portsea.
Weather is lovely, sunny around 20 degrees already. And almost now wind. So we hope for good snorkeling conditions.
After we picked up the rest of the group we went to Pope's Eye for our first round of diving/snorkeling. Divers went in first, then we were good to go. Sara ist taking care of the three of us. Water was pretty calm in the beginning but then it was okay.
Was good to go around Sara on my own a little bit. Pope's Eye is an old military place now home to lots of sea birds and fishes.
Got to see some small fishes but was struggling with my mask. Had to clean it a few times to see better. After a while I was starting to get cold and as the two ladies also was feeling for going back on the boat we were waiting for the boat to pick us up. Unfortunately I was taking quite a while for them to recognize that we wanted a pick up and the waves got higher and higher. So I was starting to feel a little bit uncomfortable and especially I was starting to freeze.
Plus that my underwater camera is not turning on anymore and I wonder if its the battery or if water was getting into it. So I am really disappointed now as I will not be able to take pictures from the seals..
Finally we got picked up. And i tried to get warm again as we had to pick up the divers as well and then headed to our next snorkeling stop, Chinaman's Hat.
Here everyone is just snorkeling. And we get only 10 minutes with the seals. It's only male seals here, either to young or to old to breed.
So we went all in the water, that felt much warmer than the first time. It's also not so deep and you can see the sand.
First i struggled again with my mask but good fix it quick and then I saw two seals coming closer to me from the right side. I was at the end of the group and very happy to see them. After that a huge stingray passed under me. Wow how huge that one is.
And then I saw a few seals coming closer from behind and two of them were coming really close to be to check me out! Amazing!
And then the 10 minutes was already over and we had to go back on board.
We the. Went back to Portsea to drop of the people from there and after that back to Queenscliff shortly before 1 pm.
I got changed in the public toilets there, they even have a shower and could line up in the long line to the ferry directly. I knew I won't make the 1 pm ferry but that I won't make the 2pm ferry was a surprise. So I had to wait in total 2 hours to get on the ferry at 3 pm. The ride to Sorrento is taking around 40 minutes. So I tried to push gas to arrive not to late on Phillip Island as it's taking at least 2 hours to get there. But the traffic was horrible in the beginning and I arrived at the campground at 6:10pm. They had prepared all for a late check-in so it was no problem at all.
My side is closed to the beach. Really nice place here. I just made up a plan for tomorrow, had a shower and dinner and went to bed around 9:30pm.
Gonna be a big day tomorrow!Read more