It seemed like a bad idea at the time: Eco tour

School holidays started this week and now I'm back in civilisation I'm again confused by the unfriendliness of these big family groups. Oh well.

I left the bogan caravan park in Ceduna yesterday without a destination in mind. I stopped at a rest area and the weather forecast said it would be 35 degrees today, so I checked a map for nearby water.

I had an Eco lodge marked on my map so I called them to see if they had availability on today's tour, which they did. So I rode to Baird Bay to find that it is at the end of 30km of dirt. There are about a dozen houses and the Eco-lodge, plus a little camp ground where I stayed. The main street is dirt and about 200 metres too short, so the beach serves as the remainder of the main street.

I went down the beach this morning for the tour. We put on wetsuits, boarded a little punt and went out to Jones Island, where we went SWIMMING WITH FLIPPING SEA LIONS!

It was amazing. Quite a few were already playing around in the water and when they heard the boat more came down from the island. Several came over to this little patch of clear water where we were and swam around with us. They were very, very similar to dogs. There was a buoy in the water and one kept swimming down and grabbing the anchor to take off with it. They would swim right up and look at my face.

When I got out of the water it definitely wasn't 35 degrees. It was super cold. We went over to the other side of the bay for a look. Two sea lion pups were over there surfing in the waves. Then WE WENT SWIMMING WITH FLIPPING DOLPHINS!

The dolphins were not like dogs, they were like dolphins. They moved quicker and were all around. When they were in groups they swam slower and I could swim along with them for a while. When they broke off individually they'd roll and dive and swim all around. If I lost sight of one I'd just turn around and there'd be another one. Like the sea lions, one of the dolphins came up and looked right in my face. One baby one was full of energy and constantly darted around, showing off. The big ones were huge. Much bigger than me (although not as big as the male sea lions).

Eventually we got back in the boat to go back to the sea lions. The baby dolphin followed the boat over with us on its own. We went in too shallow for it and it turned around and went back to the pod. Apparently they know that dolphin well and it loves the boat.

I didn't go swimming with the sea lions again. It was too cold. I did see a male come down and chase one of the females. The speed was phenomenal. They look so placid when they're playing with us but these two showed they can move. They were like underwater missiles. I'd say torpedoes but torpedoes seem slow.

Anyway after all that we came back to shore and I headed down to Elliston. The family that run the tour place ride bikes and recommended the ride from Elliston to Cleve, so I'll do that tomorrow.

Never in my life have I ever wished I had a gopro more than I did today. If I ever get dementia I'd rather forget everything else before forgetting swimming with sea lions and dolphins. Wearing underpants on my head, pissing in the sink, drinking turpentine and muttering about dolphins and sea lions is how I want to go.

Oh, I also went to Murphy's haystacks. Ages ago this Scottish farmer was banging on to a heap of other farmers about farrowing to improve hay supplies, and he pointed at these enormous haystacks off in the distance and said that that farmer must use harrowing to get such an impressive stacks of hay. The other farmers knew that the haystacks were actually rock formations, hence why they're called haystacks. As rocks they are ok but as haystacks I think they'd be much more fun. If they were dolphins or sea lions that would be best.