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DivingDefined by adventure, thrill and courage, diving is an adventure sport that refers to acrobatically jumping ..... I just went for my BEST dive ever!! Even the dive leader who's been diving about 40 yrs said he'd give it a 9 out of 10.
We saw just about every fish that it's possible to see at Julian Rocks, and soooo many and sooo BIG!!!
The first dive we went out from the rocks to a deeper dive site named Spot Ex.
We'd only swam a couple of feet and saw this magnificent Black Cod, which was almost as long as I am tall ( about 5 foot ).
I scanned these photos in from a poster which came from the NSW department of Primary Industries. John shared Ruth's camera with another guy, who's going to send me the photos.
I can't think about the first dive right now, because the second dive of the day was just soooo fantastic!!!
There was so many fish to see. The 7 of us descended down the anchor rope, then swam off to see a large Wobbegong, then another and another and another. They were everywhere, and John was busy taking photos of some of them. Someone else has the camera right now, so I can't show them to you just yet.
There were 2 different brands of Wobbegongs - Spotted and Banded. Here's a Wobbegong, cute isn't he?
A Nature MeditationYou are sitting by a quietly flowing stream in the countryside. It is spring .....
Then, I saw the First Grey Nurse Shark I've ever seen!! It was just gliding past us, and didn't take any notice of all of us. We all just hovered astounded. No-one seemed to hear my exclamations. I just couldn't believe my eyes.
And, he (or she) was giving this cute little fish a ride on his back - a Ramoray, so I was told later. The Shark was at least 10 foot long ( about 3 metres ). It was beautiful.
Then, there was another one just behind it.
Dave ( our dive leader) pointed upwards, and there was a school of little Bat Rays.
We saw Blue Gropers ( they're pretty common). Very pretty though - they look more purple than blue to me!
We saw some Clown Fish, Lion Fish, Anemones, Sweetlip fish, Jewfish.
On the way to the Cod Hole, we kept seeing Grey Nurse Sharks. They look more bluish, silver grey than the colour in this photo.
We arrived at the Cod Hole and 3 divers went in there while the rest of us waited (it was too small for all of us to fit).
While waiting, we saw a school of King Fish and some Cod.
When it was our turn, I went in first and was intently looking at whatever Dave shone his torch on. One of the other divers tapped me on the shoulder, grinned and pointed down. About 1 foot below me, was a huge wobbegong, so I got out of his way before I stepped on him.
Later on, in the boat, two of the guys in the cod hole with me, said I touched the wobbegong with my hand ( I couldn't feel it with my gloves on ). Gee, I wished they'd taken a photo of me touching a wobbegong!! They said he hardly flinched. Very laid back creatures!
There was another beauty of a Grey Nurse shark lurking around in the Cod hole.
I thought they were becoming extinct? How come we saw sooo many?? Imagine if the surfers out there near the shore new how many sharks we'd seen? They'd be racing out the water real fast.
Someone screams shark and the swimmers run out the water while all the divers race in!! It's impossible for a Grey Nurse shark to "eat" a person or even bite a person because of the shape of it's teeth! They can only eat fish small enough that can slide down all in one go!!
We also saw some Estuary Cod and many more fish. One day I'll know all their names.
Oops, I think it was time to go back. John and I both only had 50 bar of air left and we'd all been down long enough. It was our second dive, the first dive was 23 metres and we had a fairly short surface interval.
Scuba Diving ClassesThese are three of the world's best and largest diving training organizations that offer scuba diving courses and classes. PADI or ..... We all ascended together, did our safety stop, and made our way to the boat. Jack from SunDive makes it really easy to get into the boat. He takes my BCD off while I'm in the water, and I just take my fins off and climb up the ladder. He even showed me how to take my fins off easily. Mine are the ones with the clips on the side, and they're buggers to take off in the water, especially when it's rough.
GREAT dive!! I can't wait to go down to Byron Bay again.
We were all esctatic. Today, we dived with people from Scotland, another from Santa Barbara in California, and a lady from Dusseldorf in Germany.
Author: John van Zyl
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