A fun afternoon spent with whales and seals in Jervis Bay, south coast, NSW.
Dive Jervis Bay operates daily whales and seals snorkelling tours in season. When whales are spotted, snorkelers are dropped from the boat at least 300m from the whales in their direction of travel. Close encounters are entirely up to the whales to approach the snorkelers. They see us way before we see them.
With the seals, you are almost guaranteed to meet them. When they see snorkelers or divers, they would jump down from their rock ledges into the water to check them out.
The most exciting event of the day though was a swim into one of the narrower sea caves. It was so narrow that you could touch both sides with your outstretched arms. It was about 30 to 40 m deep and quite dark inside. Basically you ride the incoming wave and fight the outgoing one, with a swell that felt like an entire storey high. No footage of that is available as I had to use all my concentration and strength to stay afloat. The safest spot was when we were deep inside the cave where the strength of the swell was at its minimal.
What a day! I think I’ll be back again before long.
