Saturday, October 30th:
Saturday morning I woke up early to go out for my first dive here. I went with Matt, Lisa, and Laura on this dive. We got on the boat and set out for the first dive site, Lottie’s Lagoon. The diving here was definitely some of the best I have seen, although I think Great Barrier Reef still has the edge. That being said, Coral Bay easily is the best snorkeling I have ever seen, but more on that in another post. All in all, it was still pretty spectacular diving. It wasn’t too long into the dive that I got a surprise visit from my friend … Desmond!!!
Wasn’t expecting to see him up here, as the book I have on Australian fish listed Valentini Puffers as living on the East Coast. Obviously they were incorrect as I spotted several little ones throughout my dives here. Some of the other highlights were blue spotted rays, catfish, a frogfish, and all sorts of other tropical fish.
After the first dive we went for a snorkel with Manta Rays! Definitely a cool experience – they are such graceful animals. Just kind of glide along in the water. I was not allowed to use flash as they have sensitive eyes so the pictures aren’t great, but just the experience itself was pretty neat.
After a buffet style lunch on the boat we hopped back in for our second dive, at a dive site called the Elbow. The highlights from this site were a cave with lionfish, this giant Honeycomb Moray Eel, and a little cave we had to swim through.
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| That hole underneath the diver is the cave I swam through! |
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| Tight squeeze! |
When I got back to the house, I met everyone at the beach for an end of the day swim. We had a Mexican themed dinner and enjoyed some burritos deliciosos before heading to the beach to see the stars again.
Managed to make a pretty epic human pyramid with the help of my tripod.
Good times all around.
Desmond wherever you go. Yay!!! Mantas are remarkable. Sometimes you can catch them jumping totally out of the water.
ReplyDeletePS The pharoahs would be proud of your epic pyramid
Don't even know where to begin!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, those clams: I can't get over how beautiful they are. What gorgeous colors! And that frogfish is so funny (I think that's what it is--that's what Dad thought anyway). Looks like the Oscar the Grouch of the sea world.
I love the coral that looks like a little ledge, with the fish swimming underneath. And is that a lion fish after the shots of the cave and the eel? What about the reddish one with the enormous eyes?? You saw such a wonderful variety of creatures on this dive. Wow! (But I'm happy to hear that the Great barrier Reef still has the edge. Go, mommers!)
Sweet Desmond.
Nice handstand. (All by myself...)
P.S. And it's great to see how much fun you and your friends had. I love all the group shots on the beach, under the stars. So glad I got to know your buddies a bit!
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