Spirit of Freedom - TRIP Gallery

Thu 31st March 2011 - Mon 4th April 2011

The first day of the trip we dove at Ribbon Reef number 10 at a site called Lighthouse Bommie. During the dives we encountered numerous marine creatures including a mantis shrimp, 2 green turtles, white margin unicorn fish, longnose hawkfish, a couple of olive sea snakes, a maori wrasse, schools of rainbow runners and big eyed trevally. There was also a couple of big barracuda and a white tip reef shark accompanied by a school of yellow tail fusilier. After a couple of very nice dives everyone was well in the mood to let the journey continue so we had a fantastic dinner & then headed out to the Coral Sea to Osprey Reef.

Our next two days were spent diving the sites of Osprey Reef. The first morning we awoke to some good conditions & after a somewhat calm crossing the guests were more than ready to jump in and explore the reef and all it had to offer. One of the highlights of the day was the Shark Feed at North Horn, at least 40 sharks came up from the blue abyss to take part and hopefully grab some tuna for their lunch! It was a great feed with lots of action even the potato cod got stuck in and a silver tip shark was cruising around below us. Dive four of the day was also full of action when what Jeremy could only describe as non-other than a humongous turtle was sighted and one of the guests gave a free ride/tour of the dive site to one lucky remora which attached itself to his leg for the entire dive! Other marine life sighted throughout the dive were curious worm fish, male spotted boxfish, golden trumpet fish, bird wrasse and a spot fin lionfish. Once the sun had set the mood was estatic as the time approached for our night dive, for some it was their very first time and although maybe a little nervous they were very excited and so they should have been as it was amazing down there, with lots of action. During the dive we saw a big turtle, an orange reef crab, giant trevally hunting in the torch light, feather stars crawling along the coral, parrot fish sleeping in their mucous sacs and many other crustaceans including a hermit crab.

On the 3rd day of the trip we awoke to yet again excellent conditions with the visibility reaching 50m+ throughout the day. We dove along 1000m+ reef walls encrusted with healthy hard and soft coral, which were teeming with life. There were many crevices, sea caves and swim throughs lined with vibrant soft corals and huge gorgonian fans.

The last day of the trip was not to disappoint with much to see. Some of the highlights included a grouper fighting with a white tip reef shark, schools of giant trevally and blue lined snapper, a baby octopus, schools of unicorn fish, many species of clown fish and 8 stone fish. Their was creatures of all sizes and just far to much to list. This was a fabulous trip with a great bunch of people.

Thanks for the good times,
Chris Haslam (Trip Director) and Lozza (Senior Instructor)

Phone :	+61 (0) 7 4047 9150
Fax :	+61 (0) 7 4047 9110
Email :
PO Box 1276, Cairns QLD 4870 Australia

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Spirit of Freedom - TRIP Gallery

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