My first glimpse of Tangalooma’s famous wild dolphins was from
boat that ferried us to Moreton Island 75 minutes from Brisbane, Australia. They arched their black silken bodies out of water as though to greet us as we docked at island’s main pier. I was down at pier later that night for an up close and personal meeting with these friendly sea mammals; a group of eight that frolicked in floodlit waters as they waited for party to start. Along with other guests of Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort, only one on island, I trooped down to beach, picked up a fish in each hand from a bucket and stepped into water. Immediately a dolphin swam up to me. Large, gentle eyes looked into mine; pleading to be fed. I bent over and held fish in water and dolphin gratefully accepted my offering in its smiling mouth. And then lingered on a while, I like to believe to say thank you, before swimming out and repeating ritual with next guest who stepped up to feed it. The wild dolphins that visited this little outcrop every day of year to bum a snack and say hello to us, their distant cousins that lived on land, was only a fraction of thrills that Tangalooma had to offer its guests. Over two days in this island paradise, I would snorkel with schools of colourful fish, scuba diving within shipwrecks, ride All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) across sandy banks and even go tobogganing down desert dunes. Indeed, still recall moment I lay flat on my stomach on a plank at summit of a sand dune and looked down treacherous plunge ahead of me. The moment of panic, however, had passed. I had already committed to tobogganing run and focused my attention on doing it right. I grasped front of plank and lifted it off sand and made sure that my elbows and feet were well up in air so that they did not get scraped as I raced down dune.
‘Let it rip?’ Alcester, our Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort tour manager and guide queried. ‘Let it rip!’ I responded. The next moment I was tearing down face of dune. I don’t know what speeds I reached, but it seemed like over 100 kmp and with ground whizzing under me, no more than a foot from my face, it was both terrifying and exhilarating. When eventually I came to a complete stop at bottom of dune I stayed still on plank, savouring thrill of ride. A little later I was trudging up dune for one more zany run down its slope. It was culminating highlight of island safari which started with a drive through dense native forests that emerged onto a bleak desert in middle of outcrop.
Back at resort I checked in at resort’s dive unit and kitted up – tanks, wetsuit, works – for an underwater adventure. A little boat ferried us to dive site at far end of island where rusted superstructure of sunken vessels spooked sky above water. Soon I was swimming with fellow divers around battered hulls of ships resting upon seabed and admiring new marine ecosystem of colourful coral and tropical fish that had evolved around these ghostly galleons. I felt my pulse start to quicken when Lea, our dive leader and my diving buddy, led us into heart of one of these wrecks. Sensing my apprehension, she held my hand while we swam through an underwater passageway. I emerged from ordeal with sense of elation that comes from having confronted my worst fears and survived. The rest of dive was a visual delight. Soft coral swayed to rhythm of currents while brilliantly hued fish in amazing shapes and sizes waltzed around us in this bizarre underwater wonderland where life flourished in midst of ancient wrecks.
