Diving at Cooke Island is pretty good. This is a story I wrote when we dived there 2 or 3 years ago. Here’s a picture of the island:

We had a great time! The viz was poor, however we still saw lots of stuff. We went with about 5 other people, and Luke led us.

Luke found a couple of turtles sleeping, so gave them a bit of a nudge, and off they swam.

I saw John brushing at something on his head, and afterwards he told me this Damselfish was tapping him on the shoulder, and then came back later on, having a go at his head. He wondered what it was!! These fish are very territorial, so it was just protecting his environment.

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G’day, this is John writing. The great thing about diving down at Byron Bay is it’s always a relaxed and fun atmosphere with the friendly staff ready to jump in and lend a hand and, these guys are a mine of information on all the the local sealife.

Here we are loading up the boat ready for our first dive of the day to the Cod Hole at 9 a.m. New South Wales time ( 8 am our time).

All these photos are taken with the SeaLife DC550

Here we are at the dive site, that’s one of the divers with the skipper checking his air before he drops into the water. Julieanne’s just dropped backwards into the water ( really easy way to get in) and on her way over to the anchor chain. Here I am holding her camera til’ she gets to the anchor chain, I pointed it in the general direction and pushed the button, seeing all that water makes me want to jump in again.

All those bubbles at the front of the photo is someone down there looking to see what the viz is like. We’re all waiting for each other on the surface, it’s pretty choppy. We’re going to descend as a group, that way we all start off with the same amount of air.

Julieanne didn’t want to bounce around on the surface anymore, so we went down first. Read the rest of this entry »

FISH ROCK CAVE DEPTH 12 TO 24 METRES

The craggy island of Fish Rock is no indication of the splendor that lies underneath. At 120 metres long, and well known as one of the largest ocean caverns in the southern hemisphere, FISH ROCK CAVE has attracted divers worldwide. Enter the deep end of the cave at a depth of 24 metres where thousands of bullseyes hang suspended. Swim into the tunnel entrance over huge wobbegong sharks and a large bull ray resting on the bottom. You will pass by clusters of live cowry shells, a large Spanish dancer, bryozoan lace coral and sea cucumbers to name but a few.

More about a Scuba Diving Vacation South West Rocks

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 some 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. More about a Scuba Diving Vacation at Byron Bay