So, this past weekend I went on my first diving excursion since my arrival here down in Jervis Bay. The main draw of this dive is that we were to dive with seals, so I was pretty stoked, as they are essentially the puppies of the sea. I will preface this tale with the statement that these were two of the best dives I've done so far.
After picking up the rental car (again, our good friend the Toyota Kluger), I headed out of the city. For those of you who to whom I've not yet explained my car woes about wanting to bring my car over here, Australians drive on the opposite side of the road, and the steering wheel is on the right side. This is not as problematic as it sounds, as I was comfortable with it within about 5 minutes. The one thing, though, that I never quite got the hang of was the fact that the turn signal and windshield washer stalk are also reversed. I imagine it's relatively easy to spot American / German / etc. drivers on the road down here, as they are are the ones indicating their turns with a brief cleaning of their windshield.
At any rate, the drive down was quite pleasant, and took a couple of hours to the town of Huskisson where the group was staying in a large shared house. Our divemaster, Pete, was a greying man of few words, but at least he knew what he was doing. There were some nice folks on the trip, including a couple in their early 30s, Shane and Zorka. They were a riot and the three of us stayed up until 2 talking movies (I was in heaven). Probably wasn't the best idea to stay up late, considering I woke up at 6:15...
Anyway, Pete fixed us pancakes for breakfast, which I sadly didn't eat (some of you may know - despite never suffering from motion sickness before ever in the past, the last boat dive I took I fed the fish, as it were). Armed with my ginger pills and slightly stronger pills as a last resort, we made our way to the docks.
The boat was nice and the crew was fantastic (both named Steve). They gave us a quick briefing and we hit the open water. The trip out to the dive site took about 45 minutes, and we stopped a couple of times along the way to get a few fun facts about the area. First, Jervis bay is several times larger than Sydney Harbor. When Captain Cook first sailed by, he took an intial glance at the area, labeled it as a swamp, and sailed onward before finally landing at Sydney. Because he had labeled it as a swamp (which it's not), it was many, many years before anyone set out to explore it further. They didn't even have electricity until the late 1950s. The second stop was 100m off of some cliffs, which one of the Steves explained was because it was a breeding ground for over 8,000 fairy penguins. A few minutes later, we were finally at the dive site - and it was quite obvious: there were about a dozen seals in the water, barking, leaping, poking their heads out. We dropped anchor, geared up, and hopped in.
The visibility was about 50 feet or so, which is better than the soup I'm used to in Monterey. The bottom was a good 80 feet down, so once you jump in, you're surrounded by nothing but blue in all directions. Taking out my knife, I started banging on my tank with the hilt, as the seals are very inclined to check out such noises. After about 20 seconds of clanking, I started to see dark shapes moving around the very edges of the visibility. Soon, we were surrounded by no less than a dozen seals, all swimming around looking curious. If you've not seen seals up close, they can be a bit dauting at first underwater, as they easily weigh a good 400 pounds. Once they came to check us out, we were told we could keep their attention by acting crazy underwater. Having majored in crazy, I began to wave my arms, makes singing noises through my regulator, and somersault. It apparently worked, bescause shortly after my antics ensued, a handful of them swam closer. By closer, I mean they were no more than a couple of feet away. They began to mimic my movements, flipping, waving, swimming by with their mouths open. I would chase after them, and they would then chase after me. As they got more comfortable, they would start a game where they would swim rapidly straight at me and within a foot of me would change direction. It was their equivalent of 'chicken.' Another game they enjoyed was to wait until my attention was focused on something else, and they would swim up behind me and just float a couple of feet behind me until I turned around, at which point they would flip around and dart off. We were playing with them for a good 35-40 minutes before surfacing. It was probably one of the singularly most incredible experiences I've had in my life.
Back on the boat, they served us a quick lunch and we motored off to the next dive site. On the way over, we looked off the stern of the boat and saw about a half dozen dolphins leaping in our wake. They followed us for quite some time, and it was amazing to watch.
We anchored at our second dive site, The Docks, and were briefed on the location. This one was apparently full of caves to explore, and promised tons of fish. This was no understatement. We hit the water and began our descent. After dropping to the bottom, we immediately began to see fish. Lots of them. Upons swimming toward the first cave, I could see inside a massive school of fish (not certain of the type), and I swam right through them. Coming out of the other side of the cave, I was greeted by some large angelfish, a large blue grouper, and many biscuit stars. After a few minutes of swimming around, I spotted another dive pair beckoning me, pointing at something, and putting their hand vertically on top of their head like a fin (the international divers' sign for shark). Swimming over, I peered into the cave and saw just the white underbelly of a Port Jackson Shark. It was a bit menacing just sitting there in the darkness. After admiring it for a bit, I swam on. Finding another cave, I decided to try my luck with it. Had no problem getting in, but the cave narrowed considerably toward the end, closing to only slightly wider than my body / tank. I had to pull myself out through the final crack at the end. Still, a pretty cool experience. A short while later in the dive, I saw my buddy gesturing and pointing at something behind a rock. Swimming over, I peered down and saw two ~5-6 foot long leopard sharks relaxing lazily on the floor of the bay. Being that they were a bit larger, I wasn't about to attempt to cuddle with them has I had the kangaroos, as the sharks are considerably more...bitey. But I did watch them for a bit - they are really cool looking critters. Continuing on toward the end of the dive, I returned to the first cave, where I noticed something I hadn't seen before. Right near the entrance was an odd-looking rock. Swimming to ~12 feet away, I looked more closely at it. This rock had eyes and fins. Turns out it was a stonefish. For those of you not familiar with the stonefish, it is the most venomous fish in the world, and among the top 10 most venomous creatures. The venom from its spines can cause shock, paralysis, tissue damage, and death if not treated within a few hours. Needless to say, I didn't touch it.
After the end of the second dive, I headed home and relaxed for the remainder of the evening.
I'm going on a 3-day dive trip in a couple a weeks to the South West Rocks, an incredible underwater cave brimming with nurse sharks, eels, turtles, spotted eagle rays, and other large pelagics. So good.
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