Wild Australia with Ray Mears Episode 5

Episode five of Wild Australia was broadcast at 8:00PM on Monday 30th May on ITV1.  If you missed it, you can now watch it online via the ITV Player for a limited period of time by clicking on the image above.

In this episode, Ray heads along the Great Ocean Road, which runs along the Antarctic-facing coast of Australia, the longest South-facing coastline in the world.

Starting his journey in Port Phillip Bay, Ray takes to the waters in the hope of spotting a creature he has only ever seen in photographs: the weedy sea-dragon.

It’s not long before Ray gets lucky and he says: “Amazing, that is an incredible creature. It just looks like a piece of dead seaweed until you get close and then you see these little beating fins, it’s fantastic. But it’s very well camouflaged.”

As Ray braves the cold waters for a second glimpse, he is taken by surprise as another unique species of marine life appears out of nowhere: the Burrunan dolphin. With only 150 Burrunan dolphins estimated to exist in the world, two are swimming by Ray’s side.

Ray then visits a penguin colony on Middle Island, nicknamed the ‘penguin superhighway’ by the locals, where guard dogs protect the penguins from foxes, and he then takes to the seas to discover the creatures of the deep waters.

There, Ray witnesses albatross, balls of krill and a pod of fast-moving common dolphins – athletes built for the open ocean which are like bullets in the water.

Back on the road again, and Ray reaches the dramatic rocky outcrop of Cape Bridgewater, and it’s the caverns there that are the chosen home of the last of the rare marine creatures Ray is there to see: Australian fur seals.

The Australian fur seals are the largest of all fur seals, famous for their big eyes and pointed snouts, and their streamline shape and strong flippers make them skilful hunters. They may move like slugs on land, but underwater they are action heroes.