The smelliest place on the planet

---

Today we headed out to another seal colony to monitor again. This one was nearer to home but meant a 1 and a half hour walk from the van along the coast to get to the colony. The wind was blowing again today and I feel like I will be bent double soon from having to walk against the wind. The scenery was again stunning and the weather meant that the waves were more then impressive. It was not surprising that the seals were all out of the waves as they were getting pounded on the rocks. Today unlike the last time there were many more male seals instead of pups and mothers. This also meant that the smell increased 100 fold. It was disgusting! At times I really thought I was going to be sick and that wasn't because I was being pathetic! The excitement for everyone else today and terrifying moment for me happened just after lunch. We were walking along the coast, climbing over the rocks and keeping our eyes open for seals ahead of us. I was at the back of the group marking down all the numbers, I am good with a clipboard! Toby, our leader, decided to come round the back of a huge rock and in the flax having a sleep were three huge bull seals. Well they didn't take kindly to being woken! We had been warned previously that they get upset if you are between them and the sea, their escape route! So of course I was still the other side of the big rock when the three seals came bounding towards me screaming. Apparently I did the right thing by jumping onto a rock and flattening myself against it. They charged past about 3 feet from me. I couldn't stop shaking for about half an hour. It was very frightening and after that I was a bit pathetic looking round for the killer seals.

---