Category Archives: Diving

Darwinian catch-up

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Darwin’s become one of those places where I just chill and catch up with people. Spot on as the forcoming few weeks are going to be hectic beyond all belief. As a result, not a lot’s gone on but I may as well bore you all and give you a quick rundown.

Katie’s sorted herself with a house so she’s checked out of the dorm. Hopefully she starts work on Tuesday. Sad to say that as a fully qualified vet (with two degrees – smart girl) working 5 1/2 days a week plus emergency call out she earns less than a nurse on a 4-day week. Good to hear nurses are well paid here, shame vets aren’t up there as well.

Esther may be checking out very soon as one of her friends has gone to the UK for six months and he needed to rent his house out. Needless to say, a private abode without people waking you at 5am while they pack bags is worth the extra money. Add in the enormous DVD collection, huge telly, popcorn and hot dog machines… no-brainer!

Delphine re-appeared from her mammoth Adelaide to Kakadu trip. In tow were a bunch more French people, several of whom I’d met in Adelaide. As happens, people crossed paths on the various small tours that made up the long-haul one. There are essentially three tours left in Australia that I want to do: Adelaide to Alice Springs (3 days); the Northern Territory parks (up to 10 days); Perth to Darwin (21 days). Plus a trip to the areas north of Cairns. There’s $3000-worth of touring there. Ouch.

I managed to contact a diving company, Darwin Dive Centre and had a great chat with Dave who works there (and probably runs it). Really nice guy – someone who obviously loves his job. It turns out that the diving around Darwin is surprisingly rich. Around 20 wrecks both in the harbour and outside, an underwater mountain, huge fish and huge schools of those fish, non-threatening sharks, undisturbed reef… I am so going to have to come back. Sadly, the tides right now aren’t good for diving, so I won’t have a chance to get underwater again before I fly.

The only really annoying thing right now is that one of my wisdom teeth is having a wander around at the moment, so the left hand side of my mouth is in permanent agony. I’ll let it be (bar ibuprofen) until I get to Singapore. If it’s still swollen by Thursday, I’ll sort a dentist out there. Much cheaper than the ones here and they’re really good.

Tomorrow I’m going to mail a package home including my snorkel and mask. I’m going to have to skip Borneo as I just don’t have time, and my rucksack’s full to bursting – literally. I’m going to have to stitch it before I get on the plane on Thursday. The mask comes in a large box and that’s not helping. For the sake of one dive in Israel, I’m not going to lug it around any further.

That’s pretty much it so far. A couple more days and I’m off to Singapore again. Then the rush begins. No more planning ahead, no more comfy food, no more relaxed days!

Lighthouses, leopard sharks and lizards

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Dive day today, but first I wanted to make a trip to the Byron Lighthouse and the most Easterly point of the Australian mainland. It’s roughly a two-hour trek if you stop to take pictures and go off down all the little trails to the viewing platforms – well worth the effort.

Just past the lighthouse (opened in 1901, part of a “string” of lighthouses across NSW and housing the most powerful light in Oz) I looked down into the clear blue sea and watched a pod of around ten dolphins play in the surf. Unreal.

At the hostel I had time to get lunch and changed before going to the dive shop. I’d heard good things about the Julian Rocks Marine Reserve and it didn’t disappoint. The boat ride out (on a twin engine dingy) was rough but exciting and the sea was amazingly clear once we were down – visibility topping 25m. I was buddied with a girl from Californis called Julia, the dive guide was called Julian (I think from France) and we were at the Julian Rocks. Go figure.

Highlight of the dive was getting stupidly close to sharks – leopard sharks. Unlike their namesake (with which they do share a similar skin pattern), these creatures really aren’t interested in eating people so it’s safe to swim by them as they snooze on the seabed. We also saw a turtle roughly 1.5m from top to toe as well as the usual variety of colourful and not-so-colourful fishies.

As we showered off on the shore, someone spotted a Goana (excuse my spelling – I’ve not looked it up), a large lizard. Snout to tail I’d put it at around 1.5m and it didn’t look happy. This could have been due to the bush turkey which was following it around and pecking at its tail. Still, I got close enough to it to get some good snaps.

Most definitely not a crap dive

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I got out of bed around 7am, but I’d been awake since before six. Ah well.

As I walked back to the hostel from breakfast at McD’s, the dive company rang me to ask where I was. They’d arrived at the hostel and banged on all the doors, and nobody knew where I was! Well, if you will turn up five minutes early… Scott, the Dive Master and ute driver, did a u-turn and found me on the second attempt. We had a good natter on the way to Geographe Bay. There I was kitted out and met the others I’d be diving with. One local, an Irish girl and an English girl with 298 dives to her name!

With the staff – one pilot, one dive master (not including the English paying customer) and one assistant-DM we nicely filled the dinky boat and shot off at breakneck speed for the HMAS Swan wreck. This is a frigate, deliberately scuppered on my birthday in 1997 to create an artificial reef. The Aussie diver with us had been down there the year after it went down and was still shiny and metallic. He was doing a deep diving course today, which also included a trip round the now-furry vessel. Oh, as it turns out, Hopper at the Witch’s Hat was part of the group who organised the scuppering. Pretty impressive thing to say you were involved with!

This was my first wreck dive and it was an amazing experience. Most of the dangerous parts of the ship have been removed – things like the propellor and doors. Edges have been kept as blunt as possible and gaps are plenty wide enough to swim through. Having said that, I did snag my main respirator feed at one point. Given that I am actually mildly claustrophobic I’m amazed, looking back, that I didn’t freak out.

It’s all very Titanic down there (though sadly no dead annoying cherubic American actors) with the captain’s chair even remaining for you to sit on. Some areas are pitch dark and on our second dive we were provided with torches so we’d not lose our guide.

The wreck’s pretty large, though it’s hard to appreciate that when you first get there as visibility is only around 15m. You simply can’t see enough of it in one go to realise how large it is. Definitely recommended, though.

Between the two dives, we motored five minutes away and moored near a beautiful beach with crystal clear waters to drink tea and eat sticky buns. And for me to strip my wetsuit off, dive in and pretend to relax while relieving my bladder. Well, if fish can do it in the sea then so can I.

After the second dive, we zoomed back to Busselton. There we guzzled more tea, refilled tanks, and swapped the Aussie and Irish divers for the English girl’s sister – who’d not done a dive in five years. After the quick turnaround, we launched the boat airborne a few times on the five-minute ride to the Busselton Jetty – the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere at 2km long. I’m not sure if this includes the 10m at the end that’s no longer attached to the rest. Wooden jetties are great for attracting marine life, but they rot far too easily and never seem to be well maintained. Up until a few years ago, a train ran along the length of the jetty, but no more due to safety concerns.

Even around sea level, there are signs warning divers to stay back as the structure is unsafe. This is the same structure into which has been built an 8m-deep underwater “observatory” for those who want to see the underwater world without getting wet. As a diver you’re not allowed within 10m of this window, but you can sit nonchalantly on a huge sunken anchor nearby and wave at the humans, hopefully not scaring them too much.

The area around the jetty is teaming with life. Nudibranches, coral, squid, octopi, cuttlefish, angel fish… More than I can name, mainly because I simply didn’t recognise them. And they’re all so tame, you can “hover” a couple of feet above any given species and just watch it go about its daily business. Swimming through a shoal of fish as if it was an intangible curtain is a wonderful experience.

We had an hour down there, during which time the two sisters and the two staff went their own ways, while I was left to my own devices with my camera. The only disappointment of the day was my battery conking out just as I discovered a very tame cuttlefish which let me follow it about in good light. The one I did get photos of was hiding under a rock and hasn’t come out in the photos.

At the dive shop, I enjoyed probably the best hot shower I’ve had this year and was given the remains of the sticky bun to take home – a huge bread-loaf-sized lump of it! This went down very well when I got back to the hostel where it was shared out.

The staff of The Dive Shed even made sure I was dropped off right at the coach station office in good time for the bus back. I’d recommend them as a dive company any day of the week. Relaxed, fun, great attitude and lovely sticky buns! The cost of the three dives, including full kit hire, was a very reasonable $215 as well – less than I’d been quoted.

The bus back was fairly uneventful. I read a lot more and “babysat” for the woman in front of me while she nipped to the loo. Her son in the seat next to her was a very cute 6 month old with the endearing quality of smiling at strangers instead of screaming at them. Too cute!

Crap dive

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I struggled out of bed at 6:45 and made it to the dive shop for 7:30, even though we didn’t set off to the boat until gone 8:00. There was only a small group going to Rottnest today: myself, a local guy originally from South Africa and a Swiss couple.

The journey over wasn’t too bed, probably partially aided by the motion sickness tablet I’d gulped with breakfast. Once on the island, we kitted up and returned to the boat.

A very short sail got us to our dive site – Little Armstrong Bay and down we went. I was buddied with John, the local, who’d been here before and had two rubbish dives. Afterwards, so many people had told him he’d caught it on a bad day, he elected to have another shot.

He wishes he hadn’t. I wish I’d not bothered as well. And the Swiss people didn’t fare any better.

The “dive” was only to a maximum of 4.9m – more of a snorkle than a dive, frankly – which means that all the water movement stirred up silt from the bottom and made visibility lousy. There was a lot of vegitation down there, but otherwise very little obvious marine life.

We managed 45 minutes or so of zipping around trying to find things and then gave up. The swiss were already aboard when we got there, and all of us decided we simply couldn’t be bothered with the afternoon dive.

Thing is, the shop didn’t have a refund policy. Now, OK, you can’t predict weather or conditions. But on the other hand, even a nominal refund down to the value of a single-dive trip would have been good customer relations. Instead, all we were offered were $80 vouchers good for another dive within a month. Naff all use to three of us who will all be elsewhere in Oz (or in Europe) by the end of the week.

So Malibu Diving – not recommended. And if that’s the best choice dive site around Rottness (and there are about 12, looking at a map) then don’t bother going there to dive anyway.

Other than that, the island’s lovely! And my underwater camera housing works a treat. Shame the vis was so poor that I didn’t get any photos worth bothering with.

Back on the mainland, our divemaster Simon very kindly took me for a beer. He even located a pub selling Brown Ale! It was on tap, so I settled for a half. Still, nice to have had my first taste of Newkie in Australia after almost 3 months over various visits.

Underwater again

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We were up at 7:30 to make sure we reached the dive centre in time, and enjoyed a rather delicious breakfast. Tea, toast, scrambled eggs and fresh fruit. A good start to the morning, and all for 300RP… or so we thought. It turns out the German Lanka had booked us in under a B&;amp;B scheme so the food was already paid for. Bonus!

The ferry picked us up at 8:00 and dropped us at the other side of the river where we met the rest of the small dive group. In all, there were three Russians, two Ukrainians, Hans and myself. I have now met a total of three Russian women and all three are gorgeous. I feel the red tape surrounding the visa application may have to be tackled soon.

It was only a 20-minute boat ride to the dive site, and this boat was much smaller than the ones I’d been on in Australia. The ride was OK, though the sea was a little choppy. Once we got there, however, my stomach rebelled… At least I hadn’t paid for the breakfast after all. The fish got more benefit from it than I did. Next time I take the TravaCalm pills.

The anchor rope snapped, so we had to move off to another dive site as well. What little food I had left was upchucked when we got to that area. I couldn’t wait to get into the water.

Much as I was tempted, I didn’t take my new camera down with me. Instead I just prepped the underwater housing and dived with that empty to test it. Better to find out I have a leaky housing without losing a camera into the bargain.

The dive was enjoyable. Nice, warm water and great visibility. There was little or no reef – mainly rock. This made things vastly different in appearance to what I’d seen off Cairns. There were plenty of fish to see, as well as a lot of starfish. Our guide even managed to spot a lionfish hiding under a rock.

Apparently the area was even better before the tsunami, but given the abundant life under there already I’m sure it’ll be back to near-as-new within another couple of years. I’m not sure how long the dive lasted, but I logged it as 30 minutes in my book – I’m sure it was longer. As it stands, I spent 8 1/2 hours of 2006 underwater!

Looking at the coastline and chatting to the Russkies, it seems that the resorts on the other side of the river from us are the ones with people in them. Our hotel emptied of its one other occupant on the night we arrived. Ah, well.

Once safely back on dry land, we sat and read then Hans had another of his frequent naps. One major thing that Sri Lanka has going for it is that it gets proper Cadbury’s chocolate, not the rubbish they dish out in Oz and NZ. How this fits with the Oz stuff apparently tasting bad because of the ingredients being used to top it melting is beyond me – Sri Lanka is generally hotter for longer than most of Australia!

After a few more chapters of Airport, I went online at the Anushka River Inn (another 450 Rupees – oops) and tried to ring certain parents who were on the phone when I called.

We stayed there for dinner again, but there was no steak on the menu! A crying shame, but the chicken-in-a-basket wasn’t half bad as a substitute. While we were waiting for our order, I got to see part of an Animal Planet documentary on the Tiger Temple I worked at back in April. It was fairly recent, as the Abbot was in a wheelchair following his heart attack and they showed two brand new tiger cubs! It’s good to see that work is progressing nicely on the sanctuary, too.

A quick stop at the guest house to drop our books off and then we went for a walk to try and find a party. Our first stop, though, was a hairdressers for Hans to get a trim. It seems my hair clippers just aren’t good enough. Pah. I’d not have minded, but there was nothing to read but German editions of women’s magazines while I waited!

Eventually, we found a path which led through the private resorts on to the beach and walked on the sand. And walked some more. And some more. Until we ran out of beach. The resorts all had private parties, and in all honesty they all looked crap. Huge bunches of middle-aged people who’d likely wait up till midnight, shake hands and go to bed.

We decided to cut our losses and got a tuk-tuk back. When trying to describe where we were going, Hans used the police station as a reference point. The locals got a little agitated, wondering what was wrong that we needed the police so urgently until we pointed out that our guest house was near there and not to worry! I think they were actually concerned about us, which is nice enough.

There was a small party going on at the German Lanka when we got back – about a dozen Germans, all friends of the owners, just having a dinner party. We didn’t bother joining in and I spent the midnight hour in a blissful state of earplug-aided sleep. Until Hans started snoring at 3am. Grr. In fairness, he’s not as bad as someone I went on holiday with once. His snoring was like someone reducing a factory full of combine harvesters to fine metal chaff using nothing but a battery of food mixers.