We are not unpacked yet and we still need to do a lot of Christmas shopping…
But lucky us we have a reservation and are ‘forced’ to escape all the Christmas hassle into the serenity of the peaceful seashore. The elephant seals have actually completely different concerns these days. That is to say somewhere around mid-December the elephant seals come to breed ashore at the Año Nuevo State Reserve.
Here you can follow their actual migration.
Our last visit in January two years ago we could watch the pregnant females and the mothers nursing their newborn pups.
Today we are a month earlier and hope to see the bull seals fighting for breeding access to the females.
We are all excited and Maarten is so enthusiast already when sees his favorite ocean. His enthusiasm stays till he sees the first bull.
He gets so scared. He clings to Rob who has to give up all efforts to film the spectacle. Besides of that Maarten starts to scream and wail asking us to go home immediately. You have to be very quiet since you go really very close to the resting animals. He insists to be carried and I guess we have no choice.
We are very lucky. Even not all the bulls are ashore yet we can already experience some interaction and fighting for dominance. We have to keep at least 25 feet distance from those huge animals (14 – 16 ft long and 2.5 tons weight!). Our guide compares elephant seal attack to an encounter with a Chevy Truck! We better watch out.
Suddenly two of the bulls start to fight. It’s a spectacular scene but we understand why the ranger orders us to back up quickly. While the two are fighting all the other males begin to move too.
Our ‘little hero’ is obviously relieved when we left the elephant seals colony behind the dunes.
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