Australia!

Well me and the boy have escaped from Christmas Island for a holiday in mainland!
The trip was a surprise birthday present.... someones birthday later this week apparently.....

The first half of our holiday took us to Fremantle, Perth.
We did 4 boat dives off Fremantle, around Rottenest Island.
Vis on all dives was around 10-15m, with conditions being comparable to the Farne Island, except the water was a bit warmer at 24 degrees and not as deep as the Farnes (max depth 23m... after digging for 30 mins!)

Loads of cool swim throughs and bommies. Tink - you would just love it.... thousands of Nudi's!!!!!
The waters around Rottenest are also home to Sealions, seals, dolphins, sea dragons and Nurse Sharks - unfortunaly we did not see any of these whilst we were diving.

Our last much much much wetness saw Jase and I being picked up by a strong under current.... we had an amazing much much much wetness tho and found some really cool swim throughs and huge fish and lobsters. Upon surfacing we hooked up a lift back to the boat from the boat skipper on his dingy.... he was so impressed by the new much much much wetness site that we had just discovered - he saved it on his GPS and asked us to name it for future much much wetness trips.... so fame at last - Pinky's Ravines, can be found off Parker Point, Rottenest Island!!!!! Jase also sought fame in his own right.... a boat fully of 40 divers all wearing 7mm wetsuits.... and what was Jase diving in.... yes you guessed it, shorts and a rash vest........ CRAZY!!!! I dived in my 3mm wetsuit and 5mm shortie.

We didnt take the camera with us on these dives, as we were unsure of the set up and after the first day and the sea conditions we decided against the camera.

Today has seen us fly to Sydney.
We are staying in the area known as The Rocks.... our Penthouse Apartment has views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge!
I even managed to book a big ship to visit the Harbour.... I think they call it the Queen Elizabeth???? lol. We've just got back from a little walk....







We are diving a wreck called the Valient on Thursday which should be good. Will defo be taking the camera.... so pics to follow!!!! .... I promise!!!!

Love and hugs x

Fantasic to see what you are up to.

Love the big boat... would make a great wreck much wetness

WTF is going on???? Mr W have you got something to do with all this WETNESS???????

Confused - yes I am!!!! PMSL

there all at it.... privledges and other bits will be revoked!

Had a great time diving without my friendly sharkies

Sounds ace, from memory there are little beasties on Rotnest called Quockas that are a cross between a kangaroo and a rat type creature
- the only place on earth that they live is Rotnest.

There is also an annual Rotnest to Perth swim I think - quite fancy doing it one day.

Diving sounds ace, and having a dive site named after you is a proper adventure innit.

Have a great trip guys.

Hi Pink stuff great to see your post.
I can confirm that I haver not edited any posts today but I have a feeling who may have I think its gone to there heads !!



I think you have mr W

Thanks guys x
Yeah we heard about the little critters on the island, but didnt have time to meet them LOL!
x

Have a great trip you two

Don't forget the wetness

xx

They should be wet now!!

Today for Jase's birthday we went diving off Sydney..... mmmm well where shall I start????

We dived with a new dive operator called scubamunkies, based in Manly North Sydney. PADI Tec Instructor (20 years in the business) Matt took us out in a nice little cat to our first dive site.

Dive One - Wreck of the Valiant.
26.1m.... 20 mins.
mmmmm not a great start to the dive, with the vis being shocking and the shot line being some distance away from the wreck. It took us blooming 8 mins to find the damn thing. The wreck it's self isn't huge, a small tug boat. Tons of life and various types of fish all around. The Vis was very very poor!!!!!.... at best 1m! Jase and I had the fright of our lives when Jase knelt down on the deck.... which then proceeded to move..... a pair of Wobbygonge Sharks 1.5m long, 0.5m wide!!!!! We nearly a brick!!!!! .... not a good thing when you cant see cause the vis is that bad!!! We both were not happy about the vis and stories of Great Whites in the area haunted us.... so we called the dive and proceeded back to the boat....





....where Lexy puked up loads! Unusual for me, given that I now spend every weekend on the boat and I havent puked up in ages!!!!!

Dive Two - Bungan Headland - the ovens
18.3m... 45 mins
Cracking drift dive with loads of cool things to see. The vis was much better on this dive, being about 10m. Although at the end of the dive it did drop to about 0.5m! .... hence we ended the dive after 45 mins.
This dive was a combination of sandy bottoms/seaweeds and big bommies/rock formations. ...You can't beat a Sandy Bottom as Jases says!
We saw a couple of different species of Ray, Porcupine fish, Stone fish, Old Wives, and best of all a beautiful Weedy Sea Dragon!!!!






Water temp on both dives was about 24 degrees and its been a beautiful sunny day today.... red hot!!!!
Matt even provided a surprise chocolate Birthday cake for Jase.... which was just lovely!!!!

So all in all the jury is still out on the Aussie diving. Water temps here are warmer than the Uk and the wildlife certainly has bigger teeth.... otherwise very simular to the UK. One thing this trip has done... its made us really appreciate the dive conditions on Christmas Island. I expected mainland Oz to be simular.... big shock - it ain't!

Heres a couple more pics from above the water...

Excellent - keep it coming, have a great day

Ange will go mental when she sees the seahorse

It looks beautiful so do the rest of your pics, glad you're having a good time

Great to see you're having a good time.Got to agree about the diving round Sydney-it wasn't very good when I did it several years ago now.Diving off Perth was very much better-but the place to be for Aussie diving is the Barrier Reef as far as I'm concerned.You must try it when you get the chance, but do it on a live-aboard when you do.Have fun.