How to spend a special day with your loved ones in Lagos – Dolphin watching in Lagos on a Speedboat!
Stella, part of our customer care team at SeaBookings, is currently based in Lagos, Portugal. She joined a Dolphin Watching Trip and shares her experience.
As a long term traveller I hadn’t seen my mum in almost one year before she finally came to visit me in Lagos, Portugal. Such a long time to be separated from your family! And of course besides all those lovely dinners and catching up on one lost year, I wanted to show her why I chose Lagos to be my most recent place to call home. A sunset at Ponta da Piedade, a road trip up the Algarve coastline – all absolutely fabulous and fairly convincing attempts! But I don’t think I’ve ever seen my mum’s eyes glow brighter than watching those wild dolphins jump and dive all around our small RIB speedboat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Nailed it! 😉
Luckily my mum is quite an adventurous spirit, since the sea was anything but calm the day we had planned our trip. Whenever a skipper uses the words “a little choppy”, you better brace yourself! But the crew was in a convincingly good mood, knowing their business like nobody else for going out to sea every single day for years and years – so in God we trust. 😉
We left the Marina de Lagos on our rigid inflatable boat and slowly made our way out to the open sea, where our skipper sped up to maneuver us past the remarkable waves. I got a little worried for my breakfast when speeding over the open water, literally flying over the deep blue sea and bouncing up and down the waves, while my mum next to me giggled in joy.
For any of you(r mums) not being as adventurous, I’d recommend taking one of the family boat tours to see the dolphins, which are held on a catamaran and might be more suitable for elderly people or young children.
But our ride was super fun and definitely exciting! Speeding along the coastline of Lagos and Ponta da Piedade we had an amazing view of the cliffs and beaches in their magnificent colours, which are just unique from this special perspective.
Once we had made it farther offshore, the sea had calmed down a little and we could enjoy the view of a deep blue sea with the sun dancing on its surface like scattered diamonds. And as if that wouldn’t have been enough of a treat, finally a fin broke through the surface of the water and our small crowd on board went silent.
I would love to describe to you how magical it feels to see a group of dolphins travel together, to watch them jump and dive beneath the boat. I would love to tell you how one can just sense how aware the dolphins are of you and what it feels like to have them tolerate you and even welcome you in their habitat – but I simply can’t. There are no words to describe this encounter. There’s just goosebumps and a smiley mum and silence. Which is better than anything else.
This trip had definitely exceeded our expectations. By far!
I would like to add one very important aspect here that I used to be slightly concerned about before this experience. I’ve been a vegetarian literally forever, was raised a hippie and am wildly concerned for the well-being of animals, especially when being “used” as a tourist attraction – not to raise any controversy here. 😉
The concept of those tours had always left me thinking if the dolphins were disturbed, bothered or in any other way negatively affected by their visitors and would highly disagree with those tours, if they were. Obviously I can not speak for all kinds, but my experience with this particular tour was a very positive one.
Our crew was highly knowledgeable about the dolphins and their behavior and especially respectful with their personal space. We never got too close to the group, unless the dolphins decided to visit our boat themselves. The skipper turned down the engine and with it the noise whenever around the dolphins. He never chased them or seemed to cause any other reason for distress to the animals, at least as far as my amateurish observation goes. And even our group of visitors fell into a respectful silence upon each sighting instead of bursting into excitement. I only hope this can be considered the standard with all tours of this kind around the world. Nothing would leave me – and the dolphins – happier!
Ask us, if you’d like to learn more about this offer in Lagos!
There is just no way of not caring for the well-being of those incredible creatures once you’ve had the chance to take a peek into their world. A world which, by the way, we’re very much responsible for – please watch your litter! No dolphin ever likes plastic in their front yard! <3
