Snorkelling with seals in Narooma
Back in August, we were supposed to visit Lady Elliot Island, but Queensland closed their borders a week before we were supposed to depart. In true groundhog day splendour, it happened again in December. Two weeks before we were due to travel, there was a Covid outbreak in Sydney and the borders slammed shut. For context, there were 30 positive cases out of 30,000 tests.
Confined to New South Wales, we quickly booked a trip to Narooma, where we spent Christmas in 2018 and vowed to return at some point. As it was the holidays, and most people were confined to their own states, there wasn’t a ton of availability. We wound up at an amazing AirBNB that overlooked the inlet and was walking distance to town.
We made a stop at Narooma Bridge Seafoods, and ended up going back for more the next day. Gotta love cooked prawns and lobsters! It was also a bit cheaper than last year due to the China import ban.
To make up for the butter-laden crustaceans, we brought our stand up paddle boards. The inlet is really shallow, but we were there near high tide and lucked out to find a friendly seal.
We also saw seals while walking on the jetty, and at the fish cleaning station near the boat ramp.
We went on three snorkelling excursions with Underwater Safaris. If you visit Narooma, this is the company to book with. They take fewer people, they have PADI divemasters who free-dive to keep the seals interested, and they are just all around cool people.
In addition to the seals, we also saw several Port Jacson sharks like this one.
And for those of you who like video, here’s Narooma in two minutes and forty-five seconds 🙂
