This morning we headed back toward the south side of the Island, to Seal Bay. It’s home to a colony of Australian Sea Lions – they estimate there are about 1000 Sea Lions in the colony at Seal Bay. But there are perhaps only 12,000 Australian Sea Lions left, making them critically endangered.
We arrived with a bit of time before our tour, so we took a walk along the path up to a lookout that looked over the beach – and it was awesome to get our first glimpse of the Sea Lions from a distance! They were just enjoying their beach and the dunes behind it, there were a few younger seals rumbling, and a few coming out and going into the sea.
At 10am, we headed off on our tour with our ranger, Dani. She talked us through so much info about the Sea Lions before we got under way, and each time we stopped. Essentially, the tour walked down a path to the beach – but along the way, we would come across plenty of Sea Lions. This was all their area, and we all had to be respectful of them – so every time we came across one sitting to the side of the path, we had to walk single file on the other side of the path, and remain totally quiet.
I should add, that it was freezing today – only about 12º down at Seal Bay. And that photo above shows a bit of rain on the horizon, so we had our rain jackets out at the ready.
We got down to a viewing platform that overlooks the beach, and we had to pause there for a while – there was a Sea Lion that had been making its way down from higher up in the dunes, and was wandering (in her own time, of course) across the beach near the bottom of the stairs. After a little while, we were able to go down onto the beach and watch the Sea Lions up close – we were still about 10 metres away from them, but it was incredible to be on the same beach as them and watch their behaviours. All the while though, Dani was keeping an eye on all of them around us, and ensuring that we weren’t impacting where they wanted to go or that we weren’t disturbing them. Again, it was this really great balance of trying to respect the wild, but wanting to create a space where we can see the beauty of these animals and learn more about them.
While we were on the beach, those rain clouds landed on us and both the rain and wind really picked up! So for the last 15 mins or so on the beach, our rain jackets were getting a bit of a work out, and the kids were getting pretty cold! Eventually we headed back up to the Visitors Centre for a bit of warmth. We wandered around the exhibitions they had on there, and had a bit of morning tea, hoping the rain would clear slightly.
As it did look like it was starting to clear, we managed to convince the kids that we should go for a walk along the boardwalk. It follows a path down close to the beach, but quite raised above the dunes. So although you get to see the Sea Lions up close on the guided tour, on the boardwalk you get a pretty amazing view as well, and much wider and higher. Unfortunately, as we got a little way along the boardwalk and got a bit more exposed, the weather trickery got us and the rain and wind were fierce – pretty much 90º rain drops. We were all shivering and trying to make it down to the bottom of the boardwalk as quickly as possible where there was a bit of shelter!
After a little while, the rain did ease off. The wind didn’t though – it felt like it was just a handful of degrees! The poor kids were not loving it – there were moments of excitement seeing a Sea Lion or two, but then it was back to (understandably) being a little bit upset at being cold and wet and wanting to go back up. We did get a good look at all the information though, and at some of the beautiful Sea Lions down the bottom, before we started to wander back up.
On the way back up, we did get to see something pretty amazing though – we watched a few Sea Lions that were hanging around just under one of the other boardwalk paths. And eventually, it became clear that one of the Sea Lions was a pup, and another was its mum! The pup was following mum around basically saying it was hungry. Eventually, Mum stopped long enough for the pup to have some milk from Mum – it was quite incredible to be able to watch! Mum clearly had enough after a while though, and used her flipper to push pup’s face away! We also got to see a big bull (male Sea Lion) just hanging out beside the boardwalk, clearly enjoying being watched.
We had some lunch and enjoyed a bit of downtime back at the house in the early afternoon. But for afternoon tea we decided to head out to the Lavender Farm in Emu Bay. We left the timing a bit tight, but thankfully they still had some lavender scones ready to go for us. So we all sat in their beautiful outdoor area enjoying these incredibly huge scones – they had a really subtle lavender flavour in them. But the goodness was all in their Lavender Jelly – you had it like jam on your scones, but it was far closer to marmalade in texture and flavour. So delicious! We didn’t grab a jar while we were there – we just thought that we were so unlikely to use it on the rest of our trip. But perhaps it’s something we’ll order online from them when we’re back home. (Also, their Lavender Gin looks super intriguing – wish there was an opportunity to taste it!)
Tonight is pack up time once again. Tomorrow, we’re back on the ferry to head across to the mainland, and then onwards to Adelaide.
