To Swim With Wild Dolphins In Mozambique

Questions: Swim With Wild Dolphins Dolphin swimming company used Accommodation & food The dolphin experience Time out at sea Species of dolphin The boat and the weather Tips and advice Rating Contact Mark

Where did you go, and with which company?

I have been to Ponta Do Ouro in Mozambique several times over the past 5 years, to swim with dolphins with Dolphin Encountours (make an enquiry).

Where did you hear about them?

There was an article in the in-flight magazine on one of the airlines - I think it was South African Airways - all those years ago and that's where I read about them.

What was their service like… the booking process, staff and so on?

The booking process, to be honest, can sometimes be a bit of a pain but I now know the process so it's a bit easier. Apart from that, very very friendly staff. I'm almost part of the family now.

Very definitely. That's something that's very very important to me and they certainly meet that. In fact, what I like about them is they are setting a lot of the standards for eco tours.

They give briefings on safety and the animals every time before we'd go out to sea to swim with wild dolphins.

The accommodation is very comfortable - there's nothing more that I could ask for there. The ablutions are acceptable as well; they've got exclusive ablutions for the people who are there to swim with wild dolphins. You don't have to share with others in the general camp area.

The food is outstanding. I definitely come away weighing a few more kilograms than when I went down! It's very healthy - lots of fruit, veggies and salad and so on, which I quite enjoy. Very good, wholesome food.

When you see the dolphins, do they stick to their pods, and how large are the pods?

In my experience... I've seen pods of 2 or 3 all the way up to 30 or 40 at a time and depending entirely on the behaviour on the day depends on how they would interact. And this comes back to the fact that they [Dolphin Encountours] are very ecologically aware. If the dolphins are not interested in interacting we don't hang out, we don't force. We might then try and find others that may be happy to swim with us.

How about your interaction with the dolphins; any special experiences?

The interaction for me has ranged from absolutely playing games, doing what we call a circle swim where you're in the middle and you're swimming in a circle and a dolphin swims in a circle around you… where it's really high energy … all the way down to just being acknowledged by a dolphin: it turns and looks at you and swims on - which to me is a lot of significance as well: you're being acknowledged by a completely wild animal that doesn't need to have anything to do with you.

They do mimic a lot, like I'll swim down to the bottom and they'll follow me and turn in circles or roll at the bottom and then come up again.

It sounds like a dream!

I try and promote it myself and take my friends down to swim with wild dolphins because of exactly that. And one of the chaps that's coming down with me tomorrow, it's his third time going. And I heard him tell someone the other day he's never been more than once to any one place except for this, it's his third time.

Usually we'd be out at sea between an hour and an hour and a half for the standard eco-tours. That's their 3-day package.

I now normally go on their "Essence" tours which is the research and that is a 4-day one. That's the one I actually prefer. For example today, or tomorrow, I'm taking 8 people down to go and do it. I do it for the fun of it. I don't do it for money or anything like that.

Angie gives us a full briefing. She'll tell us before hand what information she needs. We all get given research tasks to do during the week, be it water observation, or counting, or sexing, something like that. Also you obviously spend a longer time on the sea… you're then out at sea anything from 4-6 hours.

Yes, primarily. There are a couple of other species there but it is primarily the bottlenose.

I suppose you see quite a bit of other marine life as well when you're out there?

Absolutely. In season we see whales. The last trip I was there in May [2007] we saw whales as well as turtles… I love it, it's brilliant.

How many people does the boat take/how big is it?

It's an 18-foot dive boat but we're normally about 15 because they take along a life guard as well on the boat. That number drops down to about 7 or 8 on the research trips because you have additional equipment you need to carry on board.

Do you ever get seasick?

Fortunately I have absolutely no idea what it's like to be seasick.

Are the dolphins usually fairly close to land, or can the boat trip to get to them be long?

The bottlenose are in-shore so they're invariably just behind the waves. We do sometimes travel quite far along the coast. We very seldom go far out to sea or anything like that.

Do you normally go this time of year (winter) to swim with wild dolphins in Mozambique?

I go throughout the year, I just won't go during Easter or New Year's, because the camp is too crowded with people.

Luckily the water's always warm along the east coast.

Just to make sure they do choose a reputable operator. I think I'm very conservation and ecologically aware when I go down there. I won't do it with just anybody. I've seen it done by other people and you know, definitely the people who are doing it for the love of it as opposed to doing it for the money, are the ones to choose.

Would you say it's better to take a package as opposed to just booking one sea outing to swim with wild dolphins?

Absolutely. These are completely wild dolphins. They're not conditioned or trained in any way and the casual thing you might be lucky and get something. They've got something like an 84% success rate of actually getting to the dolphins... because of their experience. But even so, a 3-day package makes much more sense - you get so much more out of it.

What was the most useful item in your luggage?

I always take my own snorkelling equipment but that's because I'm a very practical person. They do have stuff to rent there but I like my own stuff.

For the total experience, definitely a 9 and a half! I wouldn't go back if I didn't enjoy it.

I really think as many people should do this as possible. I have seen so many people come away with just the whole thing being brilliant. Even the people that you don't expect it from - very practical-minded people and so on, that absolutely get so much out of it. It's really great.