I must admit I've never seen so many fish, sharks, turtles and rays all in one place. It was like were were swimming in a fish aquarium (coincidentally one of my fellow divers Jack actually does swim in Oceanworld's aquarium in Manly).
My nephew Kenichi loves sharks - well he'd be so excited to learn that his Ee Masa dove with a dozen wobbygong and grey nurse sharks! It was so surreal to be swimming around with all of these sharks! And I must admit to staring into their beady little eyes I was so close. We were at 80-90 feet and surprisingly the visibility was very good in spite of how deep we were and dark it was.
In the movie Finding Nemo there's a scene where there's a highway of fish traveling all together. I was reminded of this scene because at certain points I was swimming with thousands upon thousands of fish and then at the outskirts of this school of fish I'd see these sharks lurking around.
And the wobbygong (I still love saying that word) were everywhere too and blended in so well with the rocks that if you weren't careful you might fin kick one of them.
We dove the two same dive sites on both Saturday and Sunday (March 18-20) - they were called Fish Rock and Fish and Chips.
Fish Rock is this cave is 108 meters long and 24 meters deep. We start on the right side of the below diagram and navigate through with a torch (flashlight) and up this "chimney" and then traverse to this bubble cave where at this exit are tons of fish and sea life.
We dove with Southwest Dive Centre. The second dive site is called Fish and Chips because that's where all the sharks hang out!
Since my brother's going to buy me an underwater camera for my belated birthday, I've been paying particular attention to the underwater camera's my fellow divers are using. Amber, our dive master, was taking photos with her Canon G12 underwater camera and as you'll see in her photos below (with her permission I'm sharing them with you - thank you Amber!) she's not only got a great camera, she's also a terrific photographer as she took some AMAZING photos of Fish Rock!!!
Here's the Dive Master and Master Photographer Amber Kennedy from Prodive Coogee:
This is a wobbygong or carpet shark - a fun word to say that reminds me of the word "jabberwocky" from Alice in Wonderland
This is me!
And this is me hanging out at the anchor line doing my 5 minute safety stop.
Here's what you see upon coming out of Fish Rock Cave. This is where I saw that gigantic turtle the size of a coffee table, right at the exit to the cave!
And here's Fish Rock!
On Saturday after our dives we checked out the sights of South West Rocks.
Amber's from the UK so was very keen to stroke (pet) and feed a kangaroo. While she and others tried many times (all in a very respectful way without getting aggressive) it was not to be. We did have some fun with the attempts to feed a kangaroo to the point in true Aussie fashion a challenge was set - with the prize of a beer of course!
We had a great panoramic view of Fish Rock from the Lighthouse
This is the hand-sign you use underwater when you want to tell a fellow diver "there's a shark".
Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil...
On the drive back home after an amazing weekend of diving, we stopped off at Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner. I had a taste for a vanilla milkshake and yet couldn't find it listed as one of the choices. There was this Golden Gaytime Milkshake though - and upon asking I learned it was a vanilla milkshake - so I ordered it. But when it was served up - it looked more like a carmel shake with black dots and not very appetizing so I exchanged it for a chocolate shake.
James later explained that Golden Gametime is actually an old time Aussie favorite ice cream popsicle that's vanilla ice-creme with honeycomb biscuits on the outside. Evidently Golden Gaytime goes back to like 1940s so not a product named in recent times...
I also learned a few cartoony phrases for my nephews and nieces. It's "cockney" which mean's they're originally UK phrases (probably like words you'd expect Oliver Twist to say) but since Australia's a commonwealth of the UK you often hear them here.
I asked James to let me Flip him going through these saying as I felt it was important you hear them directly from an Aussie.
Scooby Doo (rhymes with clue) - Don't have a clue.
Mr. Magoo (rhymes with poo) - Take a poo
Barney Rubble (rhymes with trouble) - I'm in trouble
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