Pictures of sea caves and cliff jumping in coasts merely a speedboat ride away from Pula harbour were, strangely, too tempting for me – a certified height and claustrophobia phobic. I thought that even if I couldn’t participate in these fun nature activities, I would still want to be in close proximity to such beautiful cliff formations and swim around it. So we signed up for a Tripadvisor speedboat tour to see Seagulls Rock and Cape Kamenjak, which can be found at this link. Igor, our skipper took us to swim in caves for about half-hour at Seagulls Rock before taking us to Cape Kamenjak for more than one hour. The boat takes off on the left side of the ACI Marine Harbour and the trip takes about 4 hours altogether. Some pictures of our day….

 

The above photo is of Seagulls Rock which was the first cave we explored. The cave is dark and you need a torch light. Admittedly, I left halfway because the claustrophobia was killing me only to bump into a group of German tourists on canoes with super strong flashlights coming in. Still, I preferred to keep swimming out so as to breath under the fresh air and beaming sun.

The photo below shows one of the rock formations in Cape Kamenjak. Unlike Seagulls Rock, Cape Kamenjak’s entry was a little trickier, but it had more light owing to the diamond-shaped hole on the right side. The entry however had very low-hanging rocks, which means that you had to swim underwater for maybe 4-5 seconds as you push through and emerge inside the cave. While swimming underwater at the entrance, I was petrified that the force of the waves might gravitate me upwards and bang my head on the ceiling of rocks which produced a bit of an internal drama but I eventually survived it (after swallowing gallons of seawater in an effort not to rush up for air).

The video shows the cute fish we saw at Seagulls Rock and which swam alongside us in perfect harmony.

Final Words

I’ll be honest, at this age, I probably wouldn’t go for this specific tour again. Being in a small boat with 8 other strangers you know nothing about is always a risk. Sometimes you get lucky and meet fun like-minded people you connect with, sometimes you don’t. In this trip, one passenger lit up a cigarette in the boat and threw its stub into the sea where the fish came to devour it and possibly later fall deeply ill. This revolted me. It was cheaper than our dolphin and sailing excursions with no eco-friendly motive, which probably invited more un-discerning youths. The boat was really comfortable for 3-4 people at most, and Igor, while very sweet and kind, did not offer that much historical appreciation of the area, which we had in abundance in our Rovinj tours. On the upside, the water was intoxicatingly magical, the rock formations a true beauty and if I could pluck up the courage, I would love to swim deeper into the caves. If I did this again, I would hire a private speedboat tour. And bring my own snorkelling gear and floats to spend the whole day resting on the sea.