libertus

Six months. Hard to believe really. We have done so many things and seen so many people yet Australia still has more to discover. However, I’m getting tired now and am looking forward to returning to the UK. That won’t happen for a few months yet as we’re doing another extended stopover in S.E. Asia. It’s the diving.

We fly out of Melbourne on the 4th March to Kuala Lumpur. From there it’s on to Sabah to dive again. From Sabah, who knows? We have to be back in Blighty by the end of June.

Anyone want to offer short-term accomodation to a couple of freeloading travellers this summer?

Still alive and still travelling southwards to attend the wedding festivities in Melbourne this weekend. We’ve stopped en-route in Canberra for some family visiting.

Today Liberta logged her 50^th dive!

We completed the classroom session of our Nitrox course on Monday but unfortunately ADI were still out of oxygen yesterday so we cannot complete the practical (i.e. breathing the actual stuff underwater) session until tomorrow. ADI gave us a couple of consolation dives using air off Cook Island (we saw a couple of sharks at the end of the second). Today we travelled to Byron Bay where we did a single dive at Julian Rocks which was interesting (dive leader lost the group, family of blue-spotted rays, large turtle).

Did anyone make resolutions? Broken any yet?!

A Merry Xmas to all those who care! We had a pretty good time diving on the reef and the Yongala although the nightly roller-coaster travelling on the boat was not conducive to restful sleep.

The camera we hired was… ummm… not so good. Couple that with my inexperience at underwater photography and the result is… not many pictures and few good ones. Here they are…

Yes… it’s me!	Examining some coral	Liberta

Greetings from Liberta	Greetings from Libertus

And, surprisingly, there are some fish that choose to make their home in the ocean!

ugly looking cod in yongala hold	a couple of spade fishes	nemo!

Sea star	Definately a Scottish fish… check the forehead!	Crown of Thorns starfish - a coral eater!

We’re back in Tweed Heads/Coolangatta for New Year. I’ve driven many miles over the last couple of days so I’m due for some rest and relaxation. Nimbin is only 60km from here so I’m popping over today to pick up some goodies for the celebration. Also booked for next week is a nitrox course with ADI - the shop where I learned to dive. Feels good to give a little back.

I mentioned that we’re diving the S.S. Yongala and the Great Barrier Reef over Christmas. We’ve also hired an underwater camera and flash. No promises nor guarantees, but I hope to be able to share a little of the excitement of diving with all my landlubber readers after the trip.

I am now trained to give first aid to mannequins!

Although I appreciate that simulating emergencies with real people is difficult and costly, surely it would be better to do that than to turn out thousands of people fully qualified to provide rescue breathing and CPR to plastic dummies?

Liberta has posted some great wildlife pictures.

The blog is still being comment-spammed by free online poker. Still under control for the time being but my last pruning pass deleted 79 spam comments. Who is responsible?

The Dive Shack on Magnetic Island skillfully sold us a couple of specialty diving courses; Wreck Diver and Stress/Rescue Diver. We successfully completed both and so are now well on our way to being highly certified non-professional scuba divers. Not that certification matters to me. I’m only interested in being a better, safer diver which the Stress/Rescue course achieved.

We are spending most of Christmas Day diving the S.S. Yongala wreck (widely described as Australia’s Best Dive) and the following two days diving the Great Barrier Reef again.

We’re staying for a few days on the island paradise of Magnetic Island, a short ferry ride off Townsville. The weather is remaining very hot but just within tolerance.

Most notable thing about the island are the flies. There are mutant mosquito-like flies here that are about 5 times normal size and doubly interested in sucking our blood. We’ve been told that every person has to kill at least 20 of these buggers every day. That’s a war!

We’ve also done a couple of shore dives in Alma Bay. Most enjoyable - unchallenging and relaxing so an opportunity to put some of our new skills to the test. Liberta seems to have a talent for spotting things; she pointed out three bright white (but small) nudibranchs on the last dive. She also admirably navigated underwater although we did cheat and pop up to the surface for cross-checking. No cheating next time!!

My vote goes to the Holiday Inn, Townsville, Queensland. Can’t tell which building it is from the official photograph? It’s the cylindrical one with the cigarette butt sticking out the top. And, believe me, it looks much worse in real-life. For a start, it’s murky brown edged with murky green. Secondly, it is totally out of character with the rest of the town.

Another picture
Another picture

Hmmm… I can’t seem to find all that many pictures. Perhaps I’ll have to take a few and upload them.

We were up bright and early (common occurrence these days) for our 8am pick-up. At the entrance to the caravan park we met Joseph, a German traveller whom Liberta correctly assumed to be waiting to go out on the same dive boat as us. After quick introductions and some brief chatting about politics the pick-up arrived and we were whisked off to the boat.

What a well-run, slick and professional operation. Nice boat too - the first one we’ve been on that was large enough to have a dry area and a head - that’s a toilet for you landlubbers! Luxury. Even though the boat was full it didn’t feel all that cramped.

Liberta, I and Joseph were three of only four certified divers on the boat - the other cert being Melanie, a Belgian girl with an Aussie boyfriend (they met over the internet - awwww, cute!) who were in the pick-up vehicle with us. The rest of the paying customers on the boat were either snorkelling or taking an introductory dive. So, the four of us formed a group with Joseph as lead because he had the most experience.

The boat took about an hour to reach the first dive site - Hook Island. It rained briefly on the way there. We are the rain gods! We geared up, got in the water, descended to 16m at most and explored some lovely coral reefs around the island. Visibility was a little disappointing at roughly 7m but there was plenty to see, although less I thought than some of the other dives I’ve done. My air lasted for 33mins which I thought was pretty good.

Back on board we partook of coffee and biscuits before moving on to the next dive site - Hayman Island. This dive was a bit more challenging - perhaps my most challenging so far. The current past the island was really strong - so much so that the boat guy suggested that we go out in the launch and drift dive the reef using the current. We did that as a group of four but quickly became separated. Joseph and Melanie shot off at one point and we never rejoined them. Max depth on that dive was 12m and it lasted nearly 40mins. Highlights were a stingray appearing from the sandy bottom and a conversation held underwater between Liberta and I on the slate trying to decide where we were whilst fighting a strong current. It was a good dive and we eventually surfaced pretty much back where we started.

Back on the boat the tempting aroma of BBQ fish indicated that lunch was about to be served. And a good lunch it was too; chicken legs, potato salad and the BBQ spanish mackerel. Liberta wasn’t quite so impressed - the vegetarian food consisted of a simple vegetable salad. The potato salad had ham in it. It’s the fault of those darned people who call themselves vegetarian but eat chicken and fish. Sigh. From now on, Liberta will have to describe herself as total vegeratian or absolute vegetarian to make sure the point gets across otherwise ham, chicken and fish will appear in her lunch!

Overall an enjoyable dive trip marred only by the limited visibility on both dives, but that cannot be held as a criticism of the dive operators.

I’m really looking forward to our liveaboard trip at the outer barrier reef over the next three days, especially the advanced dive course which consists of a deep dive, two night dives, peak performance buoyancy, more underwater compass navigation and a naturalist (which isn’t done in the nude) dive. Expect a major report on our return.