Seal Bay Conservation Park, Kangaroo Island
"Whats that on the cliff?" Chris, the ranger, was standing right next to me. ""Can you see that moving lump on the cliff top?" he asked me. I looked to where he was pointing. "Can you zoom your camera in on it, please?" I did. "It's a seal!" he said, sounding totally astonished. "I thought it might have been a person, even though the area is out of bounds, but a SEAL!" He told us that while the seals travel as far as the visitor centre and sometimes the carpark, he said he had never seen one climb so high!
We had walked down the boardwalk to the beach with Chris for our 45 minute tour on the sand with the seals. We had to stay as a fairly close-knit group with Chris and not go too close to the seals. The beach was littered with creamy coloured seals. There were mums feeding their babies, young ones playing, and plenty lying around sleeping. A group of 4 or 5 seals came out of the water and headed up to the dry sand and lay down. They looked dark grey in colour but only because they were wet.
Just then, I thought I heard a child calling "Ma ma." I turned around to look but it wasn't a child. It was a baby seal coming along the beach. It was wailing "Ma ma, ma ma." I felt so sorry for it. It was in such distress. Chris said it was calling for its mum but they had never seen it with any of the females. The assumption was that its mother had died - either lost at sea or eaten by a shark, the only natural predator that sharks have. This poor little seal wandered along the beach crying. Each time it approached a female it was rejected or hissed at. I felt really sad for it. I asked Chris if the rangers fed it but he said no, there is now a law that prevents wild animals being hand fed. So the baby has to look after itself and may or may not survive.
At this moment, a large male seal came out of the water with some blood on his upper body. He moved up the sand towards a couple of large seals. He was aiming for the one sitting up!
Then the fight began!!!
After our tour finished, we walked down the boardwalk on the other side of the beach. The boardwalk finishes at a lookout from where we could view more of the seals but from a greater distance. We spent quite a few more minutes watching them play and relax before heading back to our hotel.
Our final afternoon relaxing on the veranda and enjoying the view of the bay.