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Published: November 3rd 2005
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The Cave
I got this picture off the net but this still doesn't do justice to what I saw This is a special update strickly focussed on diving. I know this is a strange place for it. You think we might have included it in the section about Port Douglas and the Great Barrier reef but this dive site blew us away (Thanks to Gord for recommending it).
We decided to stay right in South West Rocks after Sarah went diving in Byron Bay and one of the other divers suggested it as opposed to the bigger city of Port Macquarie that we were considering. I won't say anything else about Sarah's dive trip in Byron, even though it was great, accept that she saw a green sea turtle, face-to-face about 3 ft away.
South West Rocks is a really quiet, really small tourist town. We were able to get a nice two bedroom apartment just off the beach for $60/night. The first full day there Sarah and Nancy went on a dive trip out to fish rock Cave (see http://www.southwestrocksdive.com.au/index.html for more details and pictures). The plan was to leave the next day early but they came back raving that I had to do this dive. They were so sure I would love it that they booked
me for the next morning.
This was to be my best dive ever. I drove to the dive launch site passing kangaroos grazing on the way. It was a quick 30 minute boat ride out to the site. It was only me and a student on board along with a ship's captain, a dive instructor, and dive master. It was only the dive master and myself doing the cave - my own private tour.
We descended the mooring line teaming with large batfish that are so tame you can feed them by hand. When we hit the bottom we stayed close to the sea floor and swam towards a ridge, marking the entrance to the cave. As we rose over the ridge we were met with a screeming current where you had to pull yourself with your hands along the rocks on the bottom (like horizontal rock climbing). Once over the ridge the current lessened and we were able to swim normally except that I was in shock as 3 large (between 6-9 ft) grey reef sharks were circling the small cave entrance. These were not the small cute ones I was used to from Belize but the rather large, rather intimidating Australian version. They were among a very large school of skeleton fish. There was no room for us to even go into the cave. The largest of the sharks circled and swam over to me face-to-face maybe 5 ft away then swam past me only to circle again and hover over me but a little behind. It followed me as I followed the dive master into the cave entrance, the school of fish parting just before our masks would touch them. Into the smaller part of the cave we saw another grey nurse shark circling but he swam off when he saw us. As the light got dimmer we switched on our lights and swam further in. I stopped to look at something the divemaster was pointing out to me. It was a large ray. I starred at it for probably 20 seconds before I noticed the ray was right beside (almost touching) a large carpet shark. It was about 6 ft long and had a such a good camoflage coloring patern that I was sure it was a collection of rocks until I got right up within arms reach of it. These carpet sharks are botton feeders and much less intimidating than the grey nurse's. On we went, we went further and further into the cave until we found the exit. We then turned around and explored back towards the entrance slowly. This time I counted over 12 rock lobsters scurrying in the crevasses and three more carpet sharks. About half way back we found an air pocket in the cave. We popped up and had a chat at 6 meters underwater about what we had seen. This was too cool. Then back down we went - and swimming out through the cave entrance was even better than going in. with the light in front of us all of the fish were backlit in with an amazing brilliance. There were still two sharks circling but we stuck to the bottom and out of their way. After exiting we spotted two moray eels in a territorial battle. They were fully out in the open taking nips at each others tails. After that we saw some trumpet fish and even the ever so cute puffer fish. After over 60 minutes we started heading back towards the boat. This is when I noticed that some of the rocks on the bottom were in fact a type of fish. At the time I thought they were stone fish (the most deadly poisoness fish in the sea) but it turned out to be a type of cod -whew.
As I returned to the boat and was snacking and drinking tea reminiscing about the dive I saw a whale brached its flipper fully out of the water about 300 meters from out boat. And that capped off my best dive ever.
I must add that Sarah felt the same way and swam the cave 3 compete times.
I also should note for all of those who think we're a little crazy that grey nurse sharks, despite their appearance, are completly harmless. They feed only on small fish and squid. There has never been insidence of an attack at this dive spot.
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Sally W
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So when are you moving to Australia???
Great to hear you loved the diving! South West Rocks is one of the best sites in Australia. Aren't the grey nurses amazing - so vicious looking but so serene. So pleased you are all having a great time and enjoying the road trip. Poor Nathan has quite a few years yet before he can join his parents on these diving expeditions but no doubt he will be a keen diver too. Luv Sal