Sealife

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We swot up on the differences between seals and sea-lions at the local ecocentre, in readiness for our sea-kayak trip. We´re picked up from our hostel by our guide, Juani, and are pleased to discover that we´re his only passengers. Our kayaks are not among the five vessels officially permitted to take tourists whale-watching, so we duly make our promises to Juani that, should we come across said mammals, we will close our eyes and start paddling in the other direction...

It´s a 15km drive on gravel roads to the launch point - a deserted beach. The sun is not long up and the sea is perfectly still. We´re excited to be in the great outdoors again after almost two weeks of city life and are looking forward to our adventure. We get kitted up, and put out cameras into dry bags, before squeezing ourselves into our two-man kayak. Juani pushes us off before getting into his own kayak and paddling after us. He´s a brilliant guide - very knowledgable about the geography and wildlife, and also great company.

We get into a paddling rhythm while hugging the coastline. The effort increases as we round the headland into a headlong wind and the sea becomes choppy. Kate´s hands are freezing and Iv´s legs are cramping up in their confined space. But we are soon distracted by a cacophony of animal sounds - a bit like a hundred bleating sheep on the farm in Wales. But the black dots on the cliffs in the distance don´t look very woolly. We paddle closer and make out two colonies of sea lions, each 50 to 100 strong. We are straining our eyes to get a better look when a mischievous, whiskered face pops up about 10 metres away. We scramble for the cameras in the dry bags, almost capsizing in the process. By the time our lenses are focused, the sea lion is well gone. We paddle on, trying to catch up with Juani. Our guide is smiling impassively, assuring us that there will be plenty more opportunity for photos.

How right he is. We cruise to within about 5 metres of a new headland where a large male and a couple of females are basking in the morning sun. They clock us, but don´t seem to care. Then suddenly, heads start bobbing up everywhere around the kayaks and, before long, they are within touching distance. Mums are cork-screwing through the water, whilst their eager pups are dive bombing under our kayak. Our paddles seem to be the only things stopping them from jumping on top of us. They´re everywhere and having lots of fun. Almost as much as us.

Juani waits patiently as we spend twenty to thirty minutes revelling in this novel experience and admiring the graceful playfulness of our marine companions, before guiding us back. We pull into a pebbled beach for a quick break on the way. We talk to Juani about his adventures - he works as a kayak guide in Canada every year - though not this year as his partner´s expecting their first baby. He was a big rugby player (he showed us a pitch on the way out - it was dry sand and gravel). He opens up his thermos of Mate (pronouned maatay) - a local tea. Boiling water is poured onto a blend of bitter herbs, and sugar for those who want it, and its drunk through a metal straw-type thingy from a special mug. The other requirement to the mate ritual seems to be friends to share it with, as drinking mate seems the most popular pastime here. The ritual is enjoyable, even if the tea isn´t to everyone´s liking. Juani also provides a small basket of facturas (pastries). Our kayak is distinctly lower in the water when we get back in them for the short paddle back to the Jeep.

We get back to the hostel with an hour to spare before we are picked by our marine-biologist PHD student guide, who will take us on our next adventure in search of elephant seals. The term 'search' is a bit of an exaggeration - we´re told that adolescent seals can always be found on a specific beach which is an hour and a half´s drive from Puerto Madryn. The drive follows a long, straight road surrounded by harsh scrubland. We park up on a clifftop with great views of the sea and, if we creep to the edge, some of the beach below. Worryingly, our guide beckons us to follow as he begins to scramble down this cliffside. But we´ve come this far...

On reaching the beach we can see groups of approx 10 seals at the far end, with more just around the headland. We approach with muted voices and perch low on the hillside some twenty metres away from them. What we seem to have found is a group of complete slobs, disguised as elephant seals. They seem to be engaged in a very blokey competition of belching, farting, scratching and sniffing. Another million years of evolution and they´ll probably have sofas and four-packs. We try and stifle immature giggles and focus instead on the talk our guide is giving on the diversity of the local fauna and the challenges faced by a particularly aggressive form of coral. But it´s difficult when almost half a ton of elephant seal rolls on its fat tummy, looks straight at us, and lets out a 10 second burp. Apparently the juveniles will spent their first years on, or near, to the safety of this beach before reaching adulthood when most of their time will be spent at sea. Approx 12'000 pups are born in this area each year.

After twenty minutes or so, we start to wander back. Our departure elicits lethargic raising of flippers from our hosts. Kate rues not bringing a net and bucket as the coastline here is the perfect spot for a bit of rockpooling. Luckily, our guide lives for marine life, so he does not tire when Kate plucks critter after critter out of small rocky cravases to enquire about their origin. Iv is less enamored by her finds - their common characteristic seems to be that they pong and they´re slimy. But Kate´s finds are nothing compared to our guide´s ... he has found a seal foetus that he assures us is of significant scientific interest, and which he proceeds to bag up to take back to the lab. As we pull on the rope to help get ourselves back up the hillside, we strategise over seating plans for the return journey, so as to avoid having his plastic bag on our laps.

We wake early the next morning. Juani has suggested a beach with particularly good views of the whales. It´s about 15km from the town centre, so we take a taxi and arrive at dawn. The car pulls up about 50m short of the beach and, as we make the walk down, we´re immediately struck by the cold. The rising sun is piercing the cloud formations with beautiful colours. The cold breeze carries the smoke of a nearby fire, and we follow the trails to see 3 locals huddled outside their tent. They must be freezing. The damp stones crunch and scrape underfoot as we walk parallel to the incoming waves. And, as promised, we see the magnificent sight of southern right whales rising from the water. The beach has a steep shelf dropping off into the sea, meaning that the whales can come very close to the shore at high tide, as it is now. There must be close to 30 whales in the harbour. Some rise out of the sea and propel gallons of water through their blow-holes, others simply leave fin trailing through the water as if using it to sail. More sinisterly, they may trail a single fluke of their tail, perfectly mimicking a shark. In the distance, in deeper water, we see the magnificent sight of a whale breaching the water completely, four or five times in succession.

Many of the whales are no more than 15 meters away - we can clearly make out that Joker-like grins of their huge jaws, the callosities on their heads, and sometimes the individual white markings on their bellies as they gently rotate to cruise on their backs. Some are being surfed by gulls, who feed off them. We don´t know why the whales come so close to the shoreline and exhibit these behaviours (yesterday´s guide probably told us, but we were busy laughing at the seals), but we would like to think that they are friendly, curious and like to show off a bit. And it´s a wonderful show that they put on for us. As we reluctantly turn around, we receive a majestic escort back along the beach from one of the whales that we´ve been filming, and we reflect on the most magical experience of our trip so far.

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