Top 12 Wildlife moments of the year 2012 - Number 7

 Number 7 of the 12 wild moments of 2012 was something I had put off from 2011 due to not having the confidence in myself or my own strength as to paddle on the sea and rely on my own body was daunting to say the least. After a year of kayaking against the current of my local river and the wind on my local lake I felt I was ready in 2012 to try kayaking on the sea and another reason was to take on my other challenge of getting close to seals and that tale begins below.

Kayaking with seals has been one of my dreams and to get close to them in the water has been a target in my mind for a while and last week I finally got closer than I have expected. Me and my brother decided on a calm and sunny morning to take our small camera kit and kayaking gear and as I have never worn my wetsuit yet I thought it was about time to get it wet.

 After setting up at the site near where a small colony of Common and Grey Seals seemed to swim and feed in a small bay during stormy weather. 
With all the kit packed in the kayak we set off to see how they would welcome us into there world. As I have seen kayakers here before and seals around them I knew it was safe but i was still nervous to be so close to these beautiful and dare I say it cute animals. After breaking through the surf we were greeted and followed by a few seals not wanting to wreak the experience by taking to many photos I decided to enjoy watching them and take a few shots before returning to the shore. They seemed to follow behind us and then diving when we turned around to watch leaving a huge wake and water splashing all over us.

 As it clouded over the light was awful so the photos were not the best but an amazing experience that will hopefully fuel my passion for getting involved in more marine projects in the future and hopefully when I return in 2013 I will get to kayak with them again with a few new pieces of camera kit to film my view of kayaking on the sea.

Thanks for reading

Mike