Seal Adventure

Mum - pic by Ju Lewis

When I was a teenager I absolutely loved the Willard Price books.  They were all called Something Adventure, eg Whale Adventure, Volcano Adventure, and South Sea Adventure (to name but three). They were about two teenage brothers who travelled the world collecting exotic animals for their father's zoo, having exciting exploits and encountering loathsome villains on the way.  Well today (Saturday 15 October) we had our own animal adventure.  It all started as we were walking down to a remote beach in Torquay.  As we slipped and slid down the uneven path, we heard an eerie wail/howl which echoed around the cliffs.  Ju thought it might be a seal, and sure enough, as we got closer to the beach, we saw two in the shallows.  Down in the cove, we sat down at a distance to watch them. One of the seals started to hightail it up the beach (as far as a seal can high tail it - it was rather a slow and inelegant process), with, it seemed, quite a sense of urgency.  As she neared the high water mark we suddenly realised there was a white fluffy pup up there.  It was brilliantly camouflaged.   Later, when we returned after exploring the rest of the beach, the mum and the pup had come down to the water's edge.  The pup hauled itself into a rock pool where it repeatedly dipped its head in and out - I guess it was experimenting with the water. We felt so privileged to have seen this seal family.

Pup - pic by Ju Lewis

Can you spot the 3 seals?