Hello, Iím Vijay Khurana.
Welcome to My Australia, the show about people from overseas having Australian experiences
Coming up today
Raymund takes to the seas in search of dolphins.
Saj tries a sport thatís very popular in Australia, lawn bowls,
and Selby finds out what life was like during the Gold Rush.
Raymund has been living in Australia for a couple of years but there are still some things
he hasnít seen
like the beautiful dolphins that live in the sea around his home city of Adelaide.
Well, heís about to head out with some dolphin watchers to see if he can spot them.
I grew up in Manila in a place called Las Pinas.
I have an older sister and a younger brother.
Oh, there were heaps of good memories.
Almost all throughout my childhood years we had like a rice paddy behind our house, but
now itís developed, itís developed into a city now.
The working conditions in my country, itís not very good for doctors.
I heard that Australia was open to international graduates and thatís how I got here.
I live very close to the city in a one bedroom apartment.
I came here because I wanted to be financially independent.
Thatís one of the things that I really appreciate.
You know, I can buy my own car.
My mum doesnít have to buy me a car.
I can buy my stuff, my laptop.
I can keep my place as I want it.
Weíre here at the Glenelg marina and weíre just about to sail down the coast to see the
dolphins.
There are a number of dolphins out there so weíll go there and see them and swim with
them, hopefully.
Gíday guys.
How are you?
Good.
How are you?
Good thanks mate.
Come to swim with some dolphins today?
Yes.
Fantastic.
We got you guys booked in here so hereís ...
Iíve been looking forward to this.
Last night I could barely sleep.
Welcome aboard Temptation.
My name is Mike.
Over here we have Brad and we got Steve on board the boat as well today.
Weíre going to head out from the marina, get our binoculars out and weíll start searching
for the dolphins straight away.
These are one hundred percent wild dolphins that weíre playing with today.
We donít feed them.
We never have and we never will.
All the interaction we get today is due to the dolphinsí sense of curiosity and their
fun loving playful nature.
So whatever happens this morning guys, is totally up to the dolphins.
Every day out here is different.
Guys we need everyone on board to get behind the crew.
Use your eyes and try and find the dolphins for us as well.
How do you know the difference be a dolphinís dorsal fin and a shark dorsal fin because
Iím thinking they must look pretty similar.
That could be dangerous.
Itís estimated thereís over thirteen hundred dolphins located in metropolitan waters off
Adelaide.
Over the years weíve archived where the dolphins are and taken photos of them.
We can tell who theyíre with, what times of the year, so it also gives us good information
of where we should be.
Do you see dolphins every day?
Every day.
Iíve been out here now for nine years, never been out and not seen dolphins.
All right.
Have a hundred percent success rate.
On average weíve probably seen about seven pods per trip.
Oh yeah.
A pod is a group of dolphins?
A pod is more than two so an average podís about five in a pod.
And a big pod would be as many as twenty-five in a pod.
Yeah?
So, yeah, thatís good.
Well, another question.
Yep.
How can you distinguish a fin of a shark and a fin of dolphin?
Actually weíve seen a few sharks out here.
As I say Iíve been out here for nine and half years and Iíve seen nine sharks out
here, mainly hammerheads, the little hammerheads..
Are they ... theyíre dangerous are they?
Hammerheads?
No, no, theyíre not.
We try and get as close as we can to ëem so you can have a good look at them.
Yeah.
But you can tell the difference because the dolphinís always goes up and down whereas
shark seems to go sideways a bit.
Now, Steve I noticed that you call the dolphins by their names.
How can you identify?
Um, most dolphins have got little marks on their fins ...
So, we got some dolphins at the moment.
Apparently we have dolphins straight ahead of us.
Just out here guys, weíve got our first pod for the day.
There we go!
Weíve even got one of our locals in there guys, named Jake.
Yep, quickly hand ëem out guys.
Go, go, go, go.
Please head straight to the back of the boat now guys.
Right behind you now guys.
About six or seven here guys.
Got a juvenile here guys, very young.
Oh itís a little baby.
Oooh, itís a very little baby.
Haha!
Right through the middle.
Swimming around in the middle, beautiful.
Oh my God!
Sideways!
Theyíre down there.
Howíd you go mate?
I missed it.
You missed it.
Oh bugger.
There was a mother and a baby and they were about three metres below us and they swam
kind of straight through, just straight past.
It was excellent.
Did you see it?
I grabbed your shoulder.
I know.
I felt that so I was looking everywhere but I didnít see any.
Itís very difficult to hang on to the rope.
My mask wasnít fitting well, so I had to fix it once in a while and have to look for
the dolphins.
All these things happening all at the same time.
It was quite ... it was difficult but I saw them jumping, you know, up and down in the
water
so thatís good enough for me, I guess.
Did you see some dolphins today?
Yeah, I did.
Did you seem them underwater?
Yeah.
I didnít see them.
You didnít?
Why not?
Iíve learned the word ëpodí today.
And what else?
I didnít know that they swim actually close to the shore.
And also theyíre not scared of people.
Yes, Iíll definitely do it again and Iíll probably bring some people to tag along with
me.
Actually we were talking about renting the whole boat and like for special occasions
like maybe birthday.
I reckon it would be fun.
Those dolphins looked incredible.
You know, zoos and aquariums are great but thereís nothing like seeing animals up close
and in the wild.
Now, if you donít like your sports to be too strenuous this next story could be for
you.
Letís join Saj as he has a go at lawn bowls.