If you missed days 1-4 and want to catch up:
Click here for Day 1, here for Day 2, here for Day 3, and here for Day 4.
I’m so excited I can hardly wait! We’d been tossing up between two major activities: swimming with seals or canyoning. Major in terms of time commitment, price, and awesomeness. While we love a good cave, I’ve never seen the opportunity to swim with seals before, so that’s what we’ve chosen!
I also put a poll on Instagram and 79% of you agreed. So here we are at 10am, driving out to Plettenberg Bay on this beautiful sunny day to join our seal friends in the water.
I absolutely *despise* wet suits, but needs must. Apparently they’re not just for keeping us warm, but also to protect us from seal bites – not aggressive ones! As we all know, seals are just the puppies of the sea, and apparently they sometimes give little play bites when they’re curious or get excited.
As we’re getting all our gear on, they give us the spiel about the rules and what to expect. Like I said in my post yesterday, I love activities like this where I get to see wild animals up close. But I think it’s really important to make sure they’re ethical/sustainable/safe for the animals too. In this case, there are just 18 of us across two small boats, and we’re told we can’t touch, chase, or feed the seals, which seems pretty reasonable to me.
We’re going out to a colony of somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 of them and there are no barriers, nets, lures, or anything else that would force them to hang out with us. Like the whales we swam with in Tonga, I’m confident the seals can get away easily if they’re not in the mood. They can definitely swim faster than me, and they have 9,999 friends around for backup.
As soon as we get in the water, it’s clear they’re used to their daily human visitors and are keen to play. They come right up to the boat and are doing flips above and below the surface as we get our snorkelling gear on and hop in.
Chesney was definitely a fish in a past life, and I swear the seals can tell. Any time he dives down, a group will chase him or egg him on for a race. I float around the surface and say hello to the ones hanging upside down, almost like bats, sunning their flippers to regulate their body temperatures.
As promised by our guide, the ocean dogs like nipping at our flippers. I know they said not to touch the seals, but I often don’t have a choice because they’ll come right up and touch me instead. Chesney swears he got a little nip on the bum.
I’ve never been happier about any purchase than our GoPro. I don’t know why it took me so long to get one, but we only picked it up a few months into this year-long trip. We’ve mostly just used it for underwater adventures like the boat trip in Albania, but it also came in handy when we went ice climbing in Iceland. Using it today has got to be its peak value so far. The guide actually has a GoPro too and the company gives you all the photos for free, which is amazing if you’re travelling without a waterproof camera! But like, personally… I prefer being able to rely on my own camera.
I don’t know why I feel like I have to say this but, obviously, do not try this at home kids! These are cape fur seals and they’re friendly and harmless. Leopard seals will kill you, sea lions are territorial, and even some fur seals in New Zealand and Australia have been known to bully the surfers. So you can’t just waltz up to any seal and ask it to dance.
That said, if you’re in Plettenberg Bay you absolutely have to take this opportunity! We booked it with Get Your Guide and the operator was Offshore Adventures. Everything was 10/10. You can book here:
If you missed days 1-4 and want to catch up:
Click here for Day 1, here for Day 2, here for Day 3, and here for Day 4.
I love your animal ethics. That looks so fun!