Sì, Silly Sicily: Dolphinless Cruise
We were promised dolphins, just for one day. The promise got broken like flowers in no time. Snapped in half by Jarmusch’s Don Juan—well, the version we met that day. Definitely not from California; don’t you dare get him mixed up with a random weirdo from the Golden State. You know how these people are! New York. New York it is. Also, far neater than that dull city of Catania (his words). Oh, and the dolphins? Sparkly like stardust, and just as unattainable. Unless you’re Major Tom—or at least a minor one—floating in your tin can. Also known as boats on this blue void in the midst of land.
“I, I wish you could swim. Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim.”
Well, that, at least, we did. Enough for the stream of consciousness; let’s embark on a sail on the relatively streamless Mediterranean Sea around the familiar places. Assuming, of course, that you’ve browsed my previous Sicilian posts.
Dolphin spotting is inherently tricky, in any case. There’s no guarantee whatsoever. Just like when we chased after mouflons in one of the Prague forests and ended up on a spooky Halloween trail instead.
Anyway, not everyone knows that up until a tad over 5 million years ago, the Mediterranean Basin was just a savanna with dwarf elephants and similar cute species. Not kidding; just google it! A biblical-style flood washed that all away when Gibraltar was breached and the waters of the Atlantic captured the lowlands. I wish I could have witnessed that, although the flooding took months, if not years.
Sicily, like most Mediterranean islands, is basically the tip of a prehistoric mountain range, so its limestone and igneous cliffs peek out from the sea resembling mountains for a reason. Over those five million years, the sea eroded the rocks, carving caves you can explore on the cruise. Unlike those elusive dolphins, these are not flighty at all; you only need to withstand a boat queue occasionally. Some have a history; others have a past. Took part in naval battles, hid submarines, sheltered refugees when the towns were besieged. One of them hosted rendezvous, allegedly.
Cave of Lovers
Grotta Azzurra
Coral Caves
Crimson coral peeking from beneath the sea’s surface
O Captain! My Captain! Not that Lincolny, yet quite Abrahamy indeed, was our captain. A true, wind-beaten, salted to the very bone, skin-cancer-mocking guappo. Spitting English words out like olive pits. All softened when wine-and-sweets time came. Swimming first, though.
We were taken to the far side of Isola Bella and allowed to jump from the bow, a privilege @honeydue seized more than once in her quest to fly, though it was still merely falling. Succumbing to gravity, though with a rather smooth landing. Don Juan took the same leap into thin air upon realizing that he had little to no chance of charming the two stern ladies at the stern just to impress the bathers with his Don Juany adventures while floating above the slopes of prebiblical mountains. Would the dwarf elephants have believed him? We didn't really buy it, so we gave Catania a shot later on. But that’s a completely different story.
Isola Bella
Enjoyed this one? Stay tuned for my next Sicilian post!
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A post about one of my favorite trips with a reference to one of my favorite movies? I mean, the cruise would've been 1000x better with Bill Murray on board, hands down, but this words-like-pits sail was pretty damn amazing, nevertheless :)
Duh, what a coincidence! :))
And yep, it indeed was :)
You have been manual curated and upvoted by @ecency
Did you know that @stresskiller is also a witness now ?
Thanks :)
So the dolphins ghosted you 😶🌫honestly, relatable 😂! But even without dolphins, it sounds like you found the soul of Sicily and a salty spoken captain. Maybe, the salt is from the sea :)
Next time, I vote for a Dolphin-Lite 2.0, bring hypnotic disco music, maybe then the dolphins swing by.
You can still be Heroes!
I've done various wildlife spotting trips and there is always an element of luck. I've seen dolphins, porpoises and whales in Ireland, Australia and Canada. Also went bear watching in Canada and one turned up eventually.
The islands of the Med are quite a mixture. I live a long way from the sea, so I take boat trips when I can.
!BEER
Hoping for some whale spotting here on Hive :))
They are fairly rare, but I've met a few.
:)
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Nice Bowie references there! I've always been more partial to otters than dolphins, but they are smart fellas. That is pretty crazy about the Mediterranean. I never really considered it wasn't always a sea before, but that makes a lot of sense from a geological standpoint.
That's how it allegedly looked:
Ah, so a little bit of water, but not like we know it today. That's so crazy. It would be amazing to go back and see it for real.
I guess it looked similar to the Dead Sea back then. So technically speaking, you still have chance to witness it in a way ;)
In my 39 years of existence, I haven't seen a real-life cave, only in pictures and videos. Thanks for sharing those amazing photos. 😍
I guess you shall visit the nearest mountain range, then. Or some rocky coast.
There's no mountain range near my place, only rivers and parks. Maybe someday, I'll try to visit some places here where there are mountains. Thank you for your suggestion. 😇
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This story reminds me of a trip, decades ago (around 1978), at the Pacific Rim National Park, British Columbia, Canada.
I was out with my son on a fishing cruiser from the port of Ucluelet, a whale watching tour with Pacific Princess. In those days, all I had was a cumbersome analog camera (a 'inexpensive' East German model Praktica). We seen it all, sea eagles, sea lions etc, and then the captain informed us the he seen a whale on his sonar, and the whale is following us. Eventually, he was just under our vessel. So I fumbled around with my camera, the whale surfaced right beside us, a big curious eyeball winked at us - and my camera malfunctioned! Next shot was a distance away, his tail splashing. But what I got (no zoom capabilities) looked like a speck of fly poop on the picture of waves and the distant coast line.
Would be great to take a tour like that again with the kind of equipment I got now. Unfortunately, that resort does not run the fleet anymore, nor does the good old Canadian Pricess boat exist anymore, where you could book a cabin to stay and dine in the on board restaurant.
However, there is a company right out of Victoria, BC which offers such cruises: Prince of Whales - whale watching
Well, I guess you can still do these things in the Mediterranean area :) Rumor has it that several seals live in caves on Greek islets for instance :)
Better luck next time... I think dolphins vanished a long time ago...
😂
I see, damn Vogons!
Asi by to bylo zajímavé, pozorovat "potopu světa", ale pod Gibraltarem bych v tu chvíli stát nechtěl :-)
Na něm, samozřejmě :)
Rozumné by to určitě bylo :-D
😃 Well, there’s been a lot of creativity flowing through these parts lately… ;) even if the dolphins remain elusive. What a beautiful journey, and such gorgeous colours in the sea.
Thanks :)
What a privilege to swim in these waters and visit these beautiful caves... Thank you for taking us along!
Hugs!