Dive Trip Report (you know you wish you were with me)

[rjarnold]

Done in Western Australia and have moved on to Sydney currently.

In W.A. - night dive in Swan river, lots of prawns, an eel with only its head visible from beneath the sand, cool anemones, corals, sea fans. Warm =D Had to buy a wetsuit...the drysuit was just a bit much!

Another place in W.A. was awesome, though silty. Too much to mention, but better was yet to come...

Busselton Jetty (Busselton, W.A. - about 3 hours south of Perth) - woot, what a dive site! Busselton Jetty is home to many many soft corals, clear seas, giant cuttlefish, octopus, and tons of beautiful fish/nudibranch. Even though I did many dives, not one anglerfish was found :(

Sydney - Bare Island - gorgeous site. I thought the cuttlefish at Busselton Jetty were huge -the one I saw yesterday DWARFED them. Crazy how big they can get. A beautiful wobbegong was found as well, and I was follow around by rather large fish (4ft?) they call a blue groper. He even let me 'pet' him (I know...I shouldn't...).

Last night was Clifton gardens, and I finally ran across my first anglerfish - Antennarius striatus. Unfortunately I don't need anything from that fish, not even a picture :P Was really cool to see though, and I didn't expect to see anything but that species given the silty bottom.

Today - Bare Island was a bit rough so we went across Botany Bay. FIVE weedy seadragons!! Definitely the highlight of that dive. Hopefully Bare Island will be better tomorrow!

Sorry I can't post pics :\ I can't even use my own computer as it is, and internet access is pretty limited (better now) but is still pay by the minute!

But wow...this warmer water diving is SO much easier, heh.

Take care in the frigid sound waters!
Rachel

[Tom Nic]

Rachel! Great to hear from you! And glad you are having an awesome time diving, even though you aren't finding any cute little frog fish to dismember and bring home! Be safe and have a blast! ...and don't think we're going to let you get away without pictures at some point!

Wouldn't know about that warm water diving however... though I keep hearing it's easier than up here

(Tom mumbles to himself, dreams of warm water, and resumes messing with his valve seal to figure out where his leak is coming from....) ](*,)

[Pinkpadigal]

Rachel...it sounds absolutly amazing!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, we are all jealous ](*,)

[mattwave]

Sounds like a blast, W.A. is on my ticklist.

[rjarnold]

Well diving in Sydney's been great! Weedy seadragons aren't all that rare to find around here, and they are much bigger than expected! Octopus, giant cuttlefish, kingfish, blue groper, seahorses, a cute little cowfish, stingrays, electric rays, wobbegongs, etc etc etc - I could go on forever One of the cooler species seen recently was the Red Indian Fish - if you don't know what it looks like, google it! It's pretty awesome, and I've seen a total of 5 now (and they're pretty big as well...these were 12-14 inches I speculate). I guess there was a gray nurse shark swimming around out there as well, but I didn't see it :\

Apparently there were stories of a great white shark roaming around Bare Island earlier this year, so one of my dive buddies today put a sign on a rope out there (for a buoy I think?) that said "Sharks - No Swimming!" Hehe.

Of course I will post pics! May 2nd I get home so look for them to follow soon after

[LCF]

Rachel, glad to hear you're having a great time. Your posts bring back memories of our trip to Australia. We didn't dive Sydney, but a little further north in Byron Bay, but we saw a lot of the same creatures. It's still up there with the best diving I've been fortunate enough to do.

[BbbleMkr]

I'm drooling on my keyboard just thinking about it. (Could be your great descriptions or it could be the monotony of our grey weather and sub-par vis of late.)

Rachel, don't you need a gear schlepper? mask defogger? fin toter? I'm sure I would make a great froggy-angler or whatever fish spotter. I would look hard! I promise!

dd