Remember how I was in Byron Bay a month ago and I was supposed to dive, and then it was cancelled? But I wasn't too disappointed because I knew I was going to dive it again? Well that was what happened, and this weekend was that dive! I went back to Byron Bay for a dive at Julian Rocks (above). This was my first dive in Australia and my first open ocean dive (I was certified in a quarry), and while I've snorkeled in the ocean a ton I haven't dived there. Because of this I was a bit nervous, but I needn't have worried. The dive went off without a hitch, the hardest part was waking up at 4a to get to Byron Bay by 7a. We prepared our gear on shore and then took a smallish boat out to Julian Rocks. It took us about 15 minutes to get out there. Our first dive was 18m, or 60ft. It was the deepest I've gone, but I had no issues equalizing (clearing my ear ways). The second we got down to the bottom we saw a Zebra Shark (Leopard Shark here) (below top). It was a great way to start off the dive! we made our way along the rocks, and saw tons of different kinds of fish. We spotted 2 eels, a manta ray, a hawksbill sea turtle, and multiple woebegone sharks! We even got to swim through a swim through rock formation which was really cool! At the end of the dive we saw a gigantic Southern Sting Ray (below bottom) with no tail! It was huge, it's diameter was probably as big as I was!
Another thing I discovered on this dive was that I use up my air quicker than average, so I had to cut about 15 minutes off of the dive. There was no issue I just had a less time below the surface, I felt bad because my hosuemates, who were my dive buddies had to cut theirs short as well. Now I know to take the big tank next time!
Photo credit to one of my housemates for the photos above
After an hour on the boat to decompress and grab a snack of pies (the savory Australian kind), fruit, and tea. We suited back up for our second dive. This one was a lot shallower, we only got down to 14m or 45ft, but we saw even more wildlife! We saw tons of pufferfish, my favorite :) (below right, can you spot him?). There were so many I lost count and all fairly big. We also swam along the bottom of this trench. As we went along, We found the huge stingray that had swam past before, it looked even bigger sitting on the bottom, as we swam over it I noticed a 5 ft woebegone sitting on the bottom, and as I came to terms marveling at that we turned a corner and saw about 7 wobegongs of various sizes piled on top of each other (some of which are below on the right)! It was amazing!!!!
We came up and I was so happy to have been able to see so much wildlife with such good viability. It was particularly cool for me because the sharks and rays were species that I had talked about at the Aquarium and it felt like I was swimming through the wild reef exhibit. It was such a great experience, so great that I signed up to dive again in 2 weeks. I can't wait to get back in the water. I'm going to go buy an Australian Reef Fish ID book because I like to know what kinds of fish I'm looking at on dives and snorkels and hopefully I'll have lots of opportunities to see them as I continue to dive Australia!
Photo credit to one of my housemates for the photos above
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