Spirit of Freedom - TRIP Gallery

Thu 18th August 2011 - Mon 22nd August 2011

We couldn't have asked for a better start to the trip, the sun was shinning, the sea was flat and what waited around the corner of Lizard Island was unbelievable. There was a calf and mum humpback whale playing in the water. The mum was pushing the calf on her mouth out of the water, the calf was so cute trying to swim as its flukes were out of the water splashing all over the place. Then what happened after that was truly amazing, we only thought there were 2 humpbacks then out of the blue came the daddy, who was humungous. He raised his flukes clear of the water and they were huge, as they smacked the surface the water rose as high as the boat. This all happened right beside that boat. It was the biggest humpback I have ever seen and it was truly amazing to witness.

During the trip we dove the Ribbon Reefs and Osprey. The dive sites at Osprey had 1000m+ walls covered in healthy corals and an abundance of marine life. During the trip we saw schools of pyramid butterfly fish, feather stars walking along the coral a small school of scalloped hammerheads, plenty of blue spotted lagoon stingrays and many different species of nudibranchs.

Over 30 sharks were attracted to the feeding frenzy this week putting on great show for all the divers. It was only a matter of minutes before the tuna heads were violently devoured. Mostly grey and white tip reef sharks were present with the sighting of a couple of bigger silver tips.
During the trip we spotted many different species of sharks that were curious to check out us divers. We also spotted a few turtles, scorpion fish and some large schools of trevally, barracuda and snapper. Some of the divers spotted a manta ray. There were plenty of swim throughs and crevices to explore on the walls.

During the last day we had two unreal dives at a site called Steve's Bommie. The dives were definitely a trip highlight due to the abundance of fish life, excellent visibility and easy navigating. During the dives we saw stone fish, mantis shrimp, schools of trevally, nudibranchs, schools of anthias, mackerel, triggerfish, banner fish, hawkish and the list goes on. The dive could be compared to diving in a huge aquarium teaming with marine life.

After a huge trip of diving, it was time to relax in Australian tradition with a BBQ, few coldies and some great conversation.

Congratulations to Ryosuke and Asami for celebrating their honeymoon aboard Spirit of Freedom.
Well Done Tim Mason for completing your advanced course.
Happy birthday Mathew, hope you enjoyed your birthday on Spirit of Freedom.

Thanks for a great trip and hope to see you all diving again sometime soon.

Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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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