Spirit of Freedom - TRIP Gallery

Thu 26th April 2012 - Mon 30th April 2012

As the planes descended towards the black tarmac of the Lizard Island airstrip, Kent and Charlene; Ian and Carol; Jean-Michel and Thierry; and Philip and Roland boarded back onto Spirit of Freedom after a beautiful morning walk along the beach at Watson Bay. We had strolled through the mangroves and over Chinaman's Ridge enjoying the natural beauty of the island environments; beach, dunes, grassland, mangroves and hillside eucalyptus trees. Our new passengers landed after their scenic reef flight and soon joined the existing passengers for two excellent afternoon dives at the Cod Hole. The huge Potato Cod were loving the fact that we were back again to see them and they came out to show themselves and play for the cameras. Schools of fusiliers and jacks hung out in the shallows, moray eels hid under big plate corals and White Tip Reef Sharks lay resting on the sand.

Overnight we travelled out to Osprey Reef and started our day with an amazing dive at Admiralty where the visibility was unbelievable. The divers jumped in and looked down to see the sandy bottom at 30m and the immense drop off of Osprey Reef disappearing into the depths. The sun streamed through the gaps of the swim-through and offered beautiful photos with the deep blue of the water as a stunning background. Around The Bend for the second dive gave us a phenomenal sight of two big Manta Rays gracefully swimming along the edge of the wall! At Silver City and Castles along the western edge of Osprey Reef, the anthias and fairy basslets danced in the sunlight, glinting with flecks of orange and purple, as the Pyramid Butterflyfish schooled in the midst of the plate corals that reached out from the edge of the 1,000m deep wall. Heather jumped in for her first ever night dive at Admiralty and John went for his second ever and were delighted to see several White Tip Reef Sharks, Grey Reef Sharks and Trevally out hunting. The flashlight fish were hiding deep in the cracks and crevices of the swim-through and the phosphorescence of the plankton was amazing; tiny green flecks spinning off the tips of the diver's fingers as they waved their hands around in the dark.

After another excellent dinner everyone relaxed with a movie in the lounge and slowly drifted off to bed for a well-deserved rest in preparation for another day of awesome diving at Osprey. The sun broke through the clouds just after it had risen and the orange glow filled the sky and was reflected on the ocean surface as Spirit of Freedom cruised towards the world famous northern tip of Osprey Reef, North Horn. Grey Reef Sharks were hanging out off the pressure point, just past Tracey's Plaque, in the crystal clear blue water, while a school of Barracuda circled out off the wall. The massive soft corals, yellow, red, purple and orange swayed in the current running down the wall. Soon the sharks were circling around the bommie waiting for the feed and wow were they hungry! The feed featured 30 plus Grey Reef Sharks going into a feeding frenzy and demolishing the feed in under five minutes! Most of our divers searched the bommie after the feed and found a few shark teeth left behind after the frenzied feed. Cindy went looking for Tracey's Plaque, for the second time, and fortunately managed to find it to say hello to an old friend. After lunch the divers explored the canyons, cracks and swim-throughs in the wall at The Gap and were treated to the massive coral ridges and formations of Coral Canyons for their final dive at Osprey Reef.

During the final morning dive back on Ribbon Reef 5, a juvenile Hawksbill Turtle swam around several of the divers while the others investigated the base of George's Wall for cleaner shrimp, crabs and nudibranchs. Our visit to Steve's Bommie highlighted the special nature of the site with the volume of marine life waiting to be discovered. Wobbygong Sharks, Pipefish, Stonefish and Nudibranchs hid under the coral while the Blue Lined Snapper and Barracuda lined up in the current. Our lovely instructor Anna celebrated her birthday with a dive on Steve's Bommie and joined everyone hanging out in the school of Blue Lined Snapper on the top of the bommie for some excellent photos. The final dive at Century Bay was a beautiful relaxing coral garden dive that completed all 26 dives for several of our 7 Day passengers so congratulations to Ian, Philip, Roland, Jean-Michel and Thierry!

Our four day trip was superb and so much fun with the whole group. Well done to John for the improvement over the 4 days with the camera mask, keep working on the still images! Thanks to David and Heather, fantastic funa and a great couple (David - brilliant underwater modelling, it certainly was the subject matter that made the photos look good) Many thanks to Tracy, Jane, Frank, Josh, Kim, Zoe, Sussanah, Bek, Geoff and Matt from Dive Adventures for all the helpful banter during the briefings and the great movie sessions, I'm glad that the practical jokes were minimal but everyone still needs to give Frank a hug! Thanks to Kent and Charleen for being such lovely people and Ian and Carol for the memories of home; it's been great having you all on for the past week!

Nick Leigh
(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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