She dreamed of swimming with dolphins. That’s all fifteen-year-old Tamara wanted from her family’s four-week tour of Australia. Her parents kept that promise, but it created a few challenges.
Tam had learned about dolphins in her ninth-grade biology class. She promptly fell in love with these intelligent sea mammals. In her view, swimming with them would be fair compensation for enduring long hours of visits with her parents’ many friends in half a dozen cities across Australia.
Their cross-country journey from Sydney, on the east coast, ended in the western port city of Perth. There the family learned dolphins gathered occasionally in a lagoon near a tiny resort community called Monkey Mia, a two-day trek up the west coast. The downside: there was no guarantee any dolphins would be at the famous marine park when they arrived.
Unfazed, Tam and her family headed off on a grueling 550-mile trip north to Monkey Mia hoping for a much-anticipated but uncertain rendezvous with dolphins. They were accompanied by the family they’d been visiting in Perth. Each family of four travelled in a Toyota Land Cruiser their hosts had affectionately nicknamed “Whoopee’s”. They quickly learned the painful reason for that term of dubious endearment.
The road was little more than two parallel ruts in bare dirt left by the wheels of earlier vehicles. At first glance the ruts appeared shallow. The travelers discovered those ruts were axel-deep in places and filled with powdery red dust that allowed their vehicles to often become high centered without warning. Suffocating clouds of the fine dust infiltrated nose, eyes, mouth, ears and food, and permeated sweat-soaked clothing.
Their hosts reassured Tam’s family the weather would break soon. It did. The next day the leading edge of a weather system caught up with the two-vehicle convoy. It solved the dust problem but created another. Keeping dry took second place to extracting one Land Cruiser and then the other from mud holes in the primitive road.
The travelers arrived at the Monkey Mia wildlife refuge on the second day, all of them mindful they faced a four-hour drive back over a rain-soaked road to the nearest accommodation.
Tam and her family dismounted and ran for the lagoon.
“Wow!” said a wildlife conservation officer who would serve as their host. “Are you in luck! I saw some dorsal fins out there,” the officer added squinting into the sun through binoculars. They were on a slight rise of land overlooking the iridescent water of a lagoon half the size of a football field.
Tam and her family hurriedly donned their swimsuits and rushed to the lagoon. Tam was first into the water; her dream was coming true!
She waded out in the clear water over shimmering white sand until the water was above her waist.
“Look!” her mother said quietly, not wanting to frighten the dolphins she’d spotted swimming into the lagoon.
“Look!” her mother called again, more loudly this time, her voice propelled by the excitement also gripping her daughter.
Tam peered down into the water. Swimming toward her was an adult dolphin. Beside it was a baby, possibly just a few weeks old. It stayed close to the adult, obviously its mother.
The sight propelled shivers of excitement through Tam’s body.
Wow! she though. Oh wow! This is awesome!
She glanced over at her family, smiling and waving with excitement from the edge of the lagoon. Even her pesky 12-year-old brother seemed excited.
This has got to be the best day of my life! she thought.
And then her day got even better. A second adult entered the lagoon and swam up to her. It nudged the hand she was holding out just above the surface of the water. Tam returned the gesture, touching the dolphin’s nose. Expecting it to shy away, she was surprised when the dolphin remained still.
Tam waded around the big marine mammal, cautiously at first, and then moving closer. She gently ran her hand up the top of dolphin’s nose to its head and then stroked the soft skin along its back to the dorsal fin. The dolphin remained still, seeming to enjoy the attention, and the affection towards it Tam was felling. She began swimming alongside, patting and rubbing its back and sides, barely able to believe her good fortune.
Maybe it’s feeling my love, she thought. She had no doubt this was so.
Tam watched as the mother dolphin and her baby swam around the lagoon, approaching other visitors in the water. All three dolphins swam among the legs of their human visitors, circling around, allowing their gray streamlined bodies to be stroked and patted. Tam’s family and the others applauded, expressing the joy she was certain those three magnificent dolphins were sensing and were returning to their human observers.
Tam overheard one of the wildlife officials tell the spectators their tracking program indicated the second dolphin may be the other adult’s sister, thus the baby’s aunt.
Much too soon, Tam heard her father call out that it was time to go. He reminded her they had a long drive ahead of them.
Moments later, as if the dolphins had heard that call, the three made a last tour of the lagoon and headed out to sea.
As Tam and the crowd watched in awe, the two adult dolphins breached, leaping high into the air bidding them farewell.
The best day of Tam’s life had just got even better!
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James Osborne is the author of the Amazon #1 bestseller, THE ULTIMATE THREAT. His varied career includes investigative journalist, college teacher, corporate executive, business owner, army officer, and writer/editor. Osborne’s latest novel, SECRET SHEPHERD, is the sequel to THE MAIDSTONE CONSPIRACY, named Best Contemporary Fiction Novel of 2015 by a global competition based in London, UK. Samples of his work can be found at www.amazon.com/author/jamesosborne.
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