Acceptance:

Acceptance doens not mean anything goes, but it means putting understanding before judgement.

Acceptance frees people to believe in themselves and find their own creativity.

Boldness:

Boldness combines genius, creativity and courage.

Boldness is an expression of courage when you are feeling inadequate and overwhelmed

Compassion:

Compassion is an expression of caring, understanding, forgiveness and tolerance

Compassion motivates passion

Faith:

Faith is essential to starting a relationship with a God we cannot see, feel, touch, smell or hear with our natural senses.

Faith achieves the miraculous and the impossible, it is the way inwhich our love for God and for ourselves combines in

unison to result in synchrnoicity

Integrity:

Integrity is a way of thinking that accepts and respects, but not necessarily agrees with, different perspectives.

Integrity does not descriminate.

Integrity involves openess and honesty, not only with other, but first of all with yourself and God

Mindfulness:

You can only be mindful of others if you have had an in-touch parent who had the capacity to reflect back to you, like

holding up a personal mirror – just who you. A parent who is able to relate to you in this way and help you find your

unique identity because they are filled up inside, there is no a gaping hole in their hearts that absorbs your soul, your

essence, so that you have to be the jewel they wear in the crown on their heads so that to others they appear worthwhile.

Mindfulness makes a person exist and feel visible with diverse colours and nuances.

Mindlfulness makes you feel like someone

knows you.

Mindfulness is the most beautiful way of loving.

Wisdom:

God is Wisdom and Light

Wisdom comes with maturity and life experience

Wisdom is possible when you balance a connected self-knowing and a connected God-knowing that is not just academic but applicable in an ever changing world.

Wisdom is deep and wide, it walks through history acquiring handed-down knowledge like old, wrinkled grey elephants traversing time. Wisdom embraces community as the cornerstone of a healthy society.

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We would like to Interact with you when Mandy does her Research

The Dolphin Research is taking place in 3 areas in the world:

1.  Algoa Bay, Port Elizabeth, South Africa:

My practical supervisor is Stephanie Plon who is linked with Bay World and the Nelson Mandela University and has personally carried out and supervised students doing Cetacean research in the area. We are not allowed to swim with dolphins in South African waters so we do pre-observation and post-observation surveys of tourists’ experiences whilst participating in a sea-viewing adventure with Raggy Charters. Lloyd. Edwards is the manager, skipper and founder of Raggy Charters.

The first survey was conducted with 19 willing professors in the Building and Survey Department of the local University. Their participation was appreciated as they were on a Departmental Christmas jaunt.

The first survey results after we had seen humpback dolphins and a humpback whale leaping exuberantly out of the water next to his mother, together with several seabird species was that everyone except one person felt that their lives had been changed and they would like to protect the whales and dolphins in this Bay.

Here my supervisor is the highly esteemed and published Professor Wurtz who is head of the Marine Biology Department of the Genova University. Read his CV.

Menkab Activities (Video)

I will be working together with fellow students from Italy, Saldinia and Iran who have formed a Marine Protection Unit called Menkab. In Italy it is not prohibited to swim with dolphins, but no-one does so, they are not used to interacting with people as there is so much shippping activity in the Mediterranean seas. I will be working together with the Menkab protaginists looking at Educating participating Tourists about the Whales and Dolphins in these seas.

A special EcoTour or Corporate Connecting experience can be arranged around these activities so that you not only have the unique experience of seeing the Whales and Dolphins in Mediterranean waters, but you are informed by those who know them well, and in addition contribute towards ongoing research and ethical ecotourism. Read here about the Romantic Trails & Dolphin Tails EcoTours and Corporate Connecting Adventures. These adventures take place not only in the Archipelago of Tuscany Islands but in the Marine Protected area of Cinque Terre. Days spent dolphin and whale spotting are alternated with walking the romantic trails the link the five fishing villages of Cinque Terre.

3. Ponto D’Ouro, Mozambique

Practical Supervisor is Angie Gullan of Dolphin Encounters. She has researched the dolphins in this area for 16 years and has been the protaginist to get this area classified as a Marine Protection Area.

Here participants will be swimming with the dolphins and can voluntarily engage with self-reflective post-dolphn swim group discussions.

My overall behavioral supervisor, Toni Frohoff is a well-published dolphin researcher who has 20 years of experience observing dolphins in their natural habitat. Read her CV

Please let me know if you would like to be a participant in this research in Italy, South Africa or Mozambiqu or whether you would like to investing in the following dolphin research expenses:

1. Ongoing tuition with Toni Frohoff
2. A camera to support identification of the whales and dolphins for scientific research in Algoa Bay
3. Travel expenses

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23 November 2011

Angie Gullan

The long awaited management plan for the Reserve was approved and presented to operators on the 23rd November. DolphinCare is overjoyed to say that finally, with immediate effect, the southern most reaches of Mozambique now has regulations that protect these intelligent beings.

Dolphins swim free and protected

The use of jetskis are limited ONLY to those for fishing and all vessels are to stay 300mt from all marine mammals and whales sharks.

The amount of operators swimming and visiting the dolphins is being reduced to two for Ponta do Ouro and one for Malongane and Mamoli, with only one boat per operator. These few things alone will make it a far safer and less stressful environment for our friends.

Coupled with this was the confirmation that the area is still on the UNESCO nomination list for world heritage site status which is a huge environmental WIN that, when awarded will contradict the proposed Techobanine Port development.

We would like to give our heartfelt thanks and acknowledgment to the government of Mozambique, the Ponta Partial Marine Reserve and everyone else involved in making this happen. We know the dolphins will be very thankful.

For the Love of Dolphins!

The Dolphin Team.

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Swimming with a wild, free-roaming dolphin is an experience beyond description.

Tribal people who live close to nature, like the aborigines may have an animal totem they are given at their birth that they identify with for life, but they do not usually have a name for life, instead they chose a name that describes who they are at the time and it changes if their life situation, their role in the group or something changes that engenders a new identity. I tried to do the same and called myself ‘wildtree’ because I was a little ‘wild’ and I was researching and observing wild dogs. ‘Tree’ because I wanted to be rooted and to bear fruit and provide shade for those who came to rest under my branches. Since then I have been ‘ButterflyBird’ when going through times of transformation, etc.. On WildLife EcoTours participants often choose a name that describes who they are or who they would like to be. It is amazing that by doing so all the normal things that identify us falls away – wealth, colour, academic or sporting status, thin or fat etc. and we begin to see ourselves and each other for who we really are. Being a team becomes a lot more flowing. Some of the guest comments below are written by participants who have signed off with their aborigine name.

Sandy's dream was to swim with the dolphins while she was pregnant

The group of people who have commented below on their Dancing with Dolphins experience were 2 pregnant ladies, their partners and a friend. The pregnant mothers had a unique experience in April 2007. Their new born children are still friends even though they live many miles apart and only see each other occasionaly.

It’s been a beautiful few days of arriving, connecting, unfolding – non-resistance, flowing – into our new beginnings.

 Thank you so much for your gentle, sensitive facilitation. It’s such a blessing when different journeys meet – as particles collide, in this case at a particularly luxurious resting place. This place has been a safe haven, as has the space we have shared, as we pause to view the sun setting on the past and turn to look towards the sun rising on the magnificent future.

 And this ever present moment is starlit and calm like the underwater haven of dolphin life. The difficulties we face are not obstacles, they are rungs on the endless ladder of light that we climb. It is awesome to do a little climbing together, sharing our loads and lighting each other’s paths.

Thanks again for reminding us that we can facilitate this kind of processing collectively – we are all 1 – at the end of the day. And special thanks to the dolphins for their skilful & intuitive facilitation, guiding each of us on our journeys to discovery in more ways than one can imagine – in the safety of unconditional love, infinite compassion and divine wisdom.

 It’s been a treat – may it continue to be so!

Whale Song (Architect)

Our time here has been an amazing time of self-inquiry, reflection, frivolous laughter, tears & a deepening of connection  to our essential selves, friends & the deep wisdom of nature & the dolphins. We are midway through our dolphin encounter and it feels like the beginning of an exciting new journey. Heart feeling tender and open from the dolphins & our sessions together. It feels that what has taken place will continue.

 Thanks Mandy for your gentle yes solid & stabilizing presence throughout. & for enabling us to meet with these incredible beings – the dolphins, reconnecting us to love, joyous spontaneity & play.

Infinite Light Spiral

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Additional good news is that I have become a part of the EcoGuide team as the Regional Publisher for the Southern African edition. Consequently you have the opportunity to advertize in the fastest growing international Ecotourism magazine in the world! Advertizing in this magazine offers you Overseas exposure to over 100,000 travellers planning their next trip…to your Ecodestination…or to participate on your Ecotour?  Read more…

I know sometimes the costs of these trips seem too expensive, but I selectively chose special choosen accommodation venues, wilderness spaces, endangered animals and tribes. I work with researchers and guides who are ethical, knowlegable and care and respect the animals they bring us into close contact with. I cannot organize these experiences and offer you my expertise without charging something. But most importantly you are worth investing in yourself in this way. Follow your heart. Go for it.

 Looking forward to seeing you soon on one of these uniquely reflective, inspiring and adventorous experiences.

Read the full newsletter here…

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A wilderness adventure observing Elephants in the Pongola Game Reserve, spending an evening at the nearby Tonga Village Bushcamp, built & hosted by the Tonga people and then several days swiming with friendly bottle-nosed Dolphins whilst staying in a luxury tented camp.

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“We are connected with each other in suprising ways”

These are the words of Lyall Watson as he writes the forwarding words for Ian McCullums’s latest book, Ecological Intelligence’. He continues,

“I learnt this when I was just eight years old, a curious child taking pleasure in wandering barefoot and alone across the great Karoo, semi-desert plain that covers most of South Africa’s dry interior.

At first acquaintance these are bleak places, rusty and unforgiving, stretching to horizons broken only by occasional flat-topped stone koppies. But like all deserts, their delights lie in the detail.

Every day I discovered something new. Floral stones sculpted by the sun and wind and, between them, a wonderful variety of succulent plants camouflaged to look like pebbles waiting patiently for the next rare fall of rain. And once in a while I would be encouraged to encounter a whip-tailed lizard, a trap-door spider, or even a fossil shell left behind by an ancient sea.

These signs of life delighted me. They promised continuity, but I was totally unprepared for what I stumbled over one cloudless day…

It was a shiny stone, larger than my foot, one amongst many others, polished by the elements with reflective ‘desert varnish’. But this one was different. It was golden and beautifully shaped with the sort of symmetry that set it apart from the others. More than just a stone.

I knelt to get a closer look and for a long time that was all I dared to do. I was afraid to touch it, but eventually my curiosity overcame my hesitance and I put my hand gently on it. And as I did, every hair on the nape of my neck bristled.

I knew what it was! A hand-axe carefully crafted to fit even my small hand. A message from the Stone Age, passed directly from the maker’s hand to mine across the gap of a million years.’

This is how it feels when you spend time swimming with the bottle-nosed dolphins who exuberantly leap and surf the warm water waves off the Ponto D’Ouro coastline of Mozambique. It is as if you connect over species-specific boundaries from human to dolphin and learn from a wisdom that is handed down over eons of time. Some time ago I had a similar experience to that which Lyall Watson talks about, a gift passed down through the ages, not a golden, beautifully shaped stone tool, but a pearl of wisdom. The life lesson learnt lead to a new Aborigine-like name: Humpback Hope!

I suppose you are wandering – what life lesson!? At the time I was newly and tentatively in love, to be confronted with a contender for my man! Unfortunately for me the contender was present, whilst I was absent many, many miles away facilitating a Dancing with Dolphins Ecotherapy Experience. Rigid with insecurities, fears of being replaced and jealousy that she was with him and I was not, I struggled to be fully present with where I was – white stretches of sand, warm, robust seas and gleeful, enticing-me-to-play dolphins!

On the third day we headed out on the rubber duck to find the dolphins. The previous day we had not found them and returned slightly dejected. I had specifically been looking for an unusual Humpbacked dolphin, a man of age, who had an incredibly calming and containing effect on his pod. My inner wrestling of the previous days had settled in a place where I knew the only way to deal with the ‘un-beauty’ in me – my jealousies – was to be generous in spirit, to wish for her happy moments; and the only way to allay my fears and insecurities was to trust and hope that the newly established relationship would still have a future. I too needed the calming and containing effect of the Humpback!

We searched the horizons, no dolphins. On an inner level I hoped he would grace me with his presence as a way of teaching me patience and trust, that our connection, myself and the Humpback, and the connection with my new man, would have their time and place. Still no dolphins to be seen. We stopped and longingly wished that they would accept our presence into their underwater realm. Soon, silent prayers and wishful thoughts turned into happy chattering, it felt good to be bobbing on the water with the mellowing sun stroking our backs. I saw him first! He hump-glided towards us, his grey streamlined body undulating through the hilly waters. Others spotted him too and then he was gone. His timely visit branded a new patience and trust in my heart. Thereafter, for a period of time I called myself Humpback Hope.

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Dancing with Dolphins:

The tranquility of the open beach that curved into the arch of a dolphin’s back seemed to unlock a deep passion inside of me that had been aching to be unhinged. I felt alone and yet so full – bursting at the seams. My heart seemed to sing with the wind that threw my hair into the evening sky. I twirled around, pivoting in the sand, spiraling into the warmth of the sun’s sinking rays. I felt alive. I felt beautiful, immersed in a beauty that stole nothing, but gave dance. Not a dance that was choreographed, but one that expressed its own rhythym – the beat of my overflowing heart, exuberant joy, Creator-pulsations through His pure, unblemished creation, through me!

My sarong wrapped around my legs as I ran through the evening air, the soft breeze kissing my cheeks and hugging my bare shoulders. The gentle, warm sea slapped against my ankles and I realized how aware I was of my own body. I knew me then, in that moment. I could feel the hairs on my arms as they reached out to the setting sun. With my eyes set on the pinky-orange horizon my heart resonated with Creator salutations. Deeply, intuitively I felt alive, I am free!

Freedom pulsated through my veins like a dolphin surfing the barrel of a wave. It consumed me and un-leashed me! I breathed in beauty and exhaled stress. I felt like a captured animal that had been released from a cage into its natural habitat; a hand-reared caged bird that was given license to fly away. The feeling was new to me, but it felt like home.

Home is not a place but a feeling of belonging. This is what God originally planed and dreamed for me. I was partaking in a slice of Eden.

When the wind hugged my body it was as if God wrapped His strong arms around me. When the sea lapped my knees He knelt in humility touching the sand He created. He reminded me that as many grains of sea sand swept that shore, those were the numbers of His thoughts towards me. He kissed my eyes with the setting sun, soothing sea sounds echolocated His love through my brain.

My face painted a smile. My humming blended with the symphony Creation played. At last I was part of the music. At last I had connected with me. I am home! It is not a perfect me, but one that I now know. A me I love without needing to do anything or be anyone or achieve. A me that could just be.

A me that could be like an animal, like a dolphin. With a timeless, ancient wisdom they know who they are, their place in creation, their appropriate way of being and behaving. In this moment, like them, I also knew me, without frills, without a mask.

I could run through the waves like a ray of light dancing through the leaves of a tree. Weightless, I could fly! Every part of my sense alert and immersed in the experience. I did not look back an
d harbour in on some past event. I did not think to the future horizons or even tomorrow. I experienced the now. The breath in this second without regret of the previous, or anxiety of the next.

Written by my daughter, Cindy!

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