I have just had a fantastic weekend. Isn't it great to get to work on Monday morning and be able to say that? To really feel like you made the most of your two days off work?
Friday night saw Toby and I packing bags ready for an early morning start. Things were looking bad when we couldn't find my wetsuit. We were about to go over to North Stradbroke Island (known as Straddie) with the sole intention of scuba-diving. We hadn't dived since we were on Lady Musgrave a year ago and had heard great things about Flat Rock just off the north eastern tip of Straddie. Well, not having a wetsuit was just awful, not just for this weekend as we were sure I'd be able to hire one, but we started thinking of how I wouldn't be able to snorkel and how I wouldn't want to do much else water-based once the water cools down in a few months. Not only that but shopping for a wetsuit is not that much fun and this one had been a gift from Toby almost three years ago when I first got here and point blank refused to spend more than five minutes in the water during the winter. Besides which, where on earth was it? We just couldn't figure out where it had gone to and my last memory of it was washing it after snorkelling a couple of days before we left Angourie. I couldn't believe I'd lost it and was so annoyed and upset with myself but also couldn't understand how no one else had picked it up either.
Beautiful sunrise
We had an exceptionally early start the next morning. We woke up in time to leave the house at 4.15am and drive down to Cleveland, east of Brisbane, where we were meeting Mark, Mindi, Guy and Nobina and getting on the ferry. For our efforts we were rewarded with a remarkable sunrise with deep reds and oranges (and I just kept thinking of the "red sky at night" poem which I think does not end well for the red sky in the morning). We got to the ferry just on time and loaded our gear into Guy's car. I could have kissed Mark when he said "is this yours?" and thrust a lump of black neoprene into my hands - my wetsuit - but I made do with jumping up and down and hugging him, excitedly exclaiming "my wetsuit" like an idiot.
We arrived at the house we were staying in, where the dive operation is run from, at about 7am and no one else was awake so Ken, the boat driver, suggested we go for a surf. I swam and read whilst the others surfed and by 8.30am we were preparing our gear. There was a fair amount of swell so we launched the boat from a protected beach. It was so much fun speeding out through the surf and the boat was airborne a couple of times as we jumped over the waves. It only took a few minutes to get out to Flat Rock but then we had difficulty getting the anchor to catch and it became more and more of a mission for me to not get sea-sick until eventually I had to be helped into my gear by Toby and Ken because taking my eyes from the horizon for more than a few seconds was too risky and there's only so much kitting up you can do without the use of your eyes.
Finally we got in the water and then got under it as quickly as we could because, as anyone who scuba-dives and gets sea-sick will tell you, that's the only place where you're going to feel okay. The surface of the water just doesn't cut it - moves too much, you see.
We went down to about 18 metres, maxing at about 22. The visibility was good - at least 15 metres and it was nice diving in a group. There were about 10 of us in all although we all eventually got separated into our buddy pairs. I immediately got disoriented, as usual, and so followed everyone else around although I was frequently distracted by things I found to photograph.
This was one of the most exciting and nerve-wracking things about the dive: taking my digital camera down for the first time. It brought a whole new dimension to diving and made me look at everything in a different way. I learnt a lot about what to do and what not to do and I know I have a whole lot more to learn so I can't wait to give it another go.
So, what did we see? Well, we saw lots of leopard sharks, which are beautiful. They're large, docile creatures who mainly hang out on the bottom but, like most marine life, are very graceful when they do spring into action. We saw a couple of turtles - probably green turtles - including one exceptionally friendly one which came to say hello to Toby and I during our safety stop and sat with us for a while just chatting. Unfortunately this was after I'd switched the camera off. Toby stretched the friendship a little too far when he decided to pat the turtle who consequently decided he'd had enough of us and made off - just as I was preparing to take a picture. We saw a huge shoal of reef bannefish and lots of pairs of butterflyfish. There were lots of anenomes and urchins, soft and hard corals, the usual beautifully coloured tropical fish and some larger pelagics. We saw wrasses and gropers and about three huge eagle rays flying overhead. Apparently there were also some bronze whalers (sharks) in the vicinity, as seen by some of the other divers in our group, but thankfully we didn't see them. I think that might have been scary.
Leopard shark swimming past fish
It was a beautiful dive and I had an absolute whale of a time, if you'll excuse the pun. Unfortunately, thanks to the sea-sickness it was over all too soon as I started to run low on air. We surfaced, gave Ken our tanks and weight-belts and then snorkelled whilst waiting for the others. Actually, Toby snorkelled. I just hung out on the float line trying not to be sick. Even in such deep water there was a lot to be seen from the surface, including a shoal of yellow-tail kingfish and one of the hugest turtles I have ever seen which surfaced for air not far from the boat.
Our next stop was Manta Ray Bommie and apparently this is the time of year to see mantas. Unfortunately, it was not my time to see mantas and although there was at least one around, which Nobina and Guy spotted, I didn't catch it. This was a much shallower dive - around 10 metres. There was less coral and more rock. More leopard sharks, lots of little stingrays, a wobbegong, blue damselfish, a little black anenomefish in his anenome (they are so cute!) and a small moray eel, possibly a white-mouthed moray. The challenge here was the incredibly strong currents which seemed to be running in all directions, usually opposite to the one we were swimming in, if I may be so bold as to use the word swim. In actual fact it consisted more of kicking like billy-oh (whatever that is, maybe it means kicking like a billy-goat which we probably were doing) and pulling oneself along the bottom by grabbing rocks. Just to stay in one spot required immense effort. Infinity Pools have nothing on these currents. My talents as an underwater photographer were truly tested as I struggled to operate the camera (which is huge when it's in its housing) with one hand whilst using the other to cling to a rock. Toby decided he liked a particular leopard shark so much that he was going to lie down with it and give it a cuddle. I amused myself by taking photographs of urchins and anenomes whilst pretending I was in a really strong wind tunnel (which is what it felt like) but after 5 minutes of that my patience had worn quite thin and I dragged him away. Well, actually I just prised his fingers from the rock and the current swept him away. On our way back to the boat we saw a little jelly fish floating on the surface of the water. As we approached it started to flash lights at us - red, blue and green up and down its sides. It was very cool and we later identified it as possibly being a harmless Comb-jelly or Sea Gooseberry.
Toby and his new best friend.
We were extremely knackered after all that, especially as we had a considerable swim back to the boat. When we got back to land (oh yes, sweet non-moving land!), we ate lots, slept, drank beer, ate more, slept again and then some people got back on the boat and did it all again on Sunday morning but Toby and I decided on a more sedate snorkel at The Gorge. We've been here a few times and there's always lots to see but visibility can be an issue. We saw another shark, which I think was a brown-banded catshark, an eagle ray, a shoal of butter bream, which are my favourite fish, possibly stemming from the fact that they entertained me on the saftey stop of my first ever open water dive but also because they're very friendly and will just gather around you and come right up to your mask eyeing you up. They're so cute. The highlight here for me was the group of about 50 squid that were just hanging out about a metre below the surface, their eyes glowing. Very cute and only the second time I've seen squid whilst snorkelling.
We were exhausted by the time we got home on Sunday afternoon and after a nap and some food we cycled down to the new Lake Kawana Community Centre for a Xavier Rudd gig. It was soooo good. We missed the support band but got there in time to see some aboriginal dancers who were very cool. With a beautiful voice a little like Ben Harper or Paul Simon (apparently both influences of his) he plays all his own instruments (didgeridoo, drums, shakers, guitar) at the same time. Very impressive.
I won't bore you any further with lists and lists of cool stuff we've seen. Enjoy the photographs.
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