Spirit of Freedom - TRIP Gallery

Mon 6th December 2010 - Thu 9th December 2010

We kick started the trip off with 2 dives at Norman Reef on a site called Caves. Awesome dive with sightings of nudibranch, a painted cray, white tip reef shark, a turtle, flat worm, green moray, blue spotted ribbon tail ray and to top it all off a school of bump head parrotfish feeding in the shallows.

Day two saw a mix of world-class dive sites. Some managed to sight a manta ray while diving at our first site Clam Gardens. Dive 2 at Yorbies was a pleasant experience with huge batfish, reef sharks, coral trout and plenty of clownfish. Up in the shallows of this dive site is unreal with table coral and staghorn corals alight with anthias. Our fourth dive brought us at wonder wall. You can easily see how it gets its name with coral walls covered in reef fish. Before dive 4 our group had a quick chat about marine conservation and how to get involved. Some were so eager they wanted to do their part straight away and helped me out on a reef survey. We collected data on coral health and fish specie numbers. Among the many things spotted were a lionfish, garden eels, sweetlips, trigger fish, damsels, wrasse and butterfly fish. Our night dive was an unforgettable experience for some with an up close and personnel experience with a grey reef shark. There were also schools of 100+ big eye trevally with a hungry shark hunting them.

We started the last day of diving off with a ripper of a dive, a drift dive at dynamite pass. With tenders ready the divers plunged into the water up current to start the relaxing dive. Beautiful soft corals in an array of colours lined the reef walls while the reef fish where getting their morning feed as the nutrients came passing down the water collum. There were a number of huge coral trout, a reef shark resting in the sand and many parrot fish and wrasses. There were just to many fish to name them all. I particularly liked the safety stop at the end, watching a huge barracuda line up his breakfast and hit his target. Great dive to start the morning before our 2nd breakfast. Compliments to Andrew our chief, the meals are delicious and give us the energy we need for an action packed day of diving.

Imagine jumping into crystal blue water with hundreds of fish species waiting for you. That is what it is like when diving the site Snake Pit. This was an impressive dive with 30m visibility and many schooling fish including barracuda and yellow tail fusilier. You're probably w ondering if we saw sea snakes with a name like snake pit, and the answer is, yes of course. The sea snakes here are so passive and just spiral around you while you continue your dive. Everyone came back with smiles all round.

The last 2 dives were at the famous cod hole. The HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_cod" \o "Potato cod" potato cod at the site can weigh 6-30 HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kg" \o "Kg" kg, having been fed by divers for the last 20 years since underwater photographers HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_%26_Valerie_Taylor" \o "Ron & Valerie Taylor" Ron and Valerie Taylor publicised the site. It's a fantastic dive for all and makes for some great snapshots. These cod aren't shy and love to get up close and personnel, and so do the cheeky red bass. The dive site also has much more to offer then the cod. Sharks, rays, eels, turtles and 100's of reef species also call the dive site home. Towards the end of the 2nd dive we spotted a large pod of dolphins, a few of the divers had the chance to see them under water and were so excited. Many also commented on the nice lay out of the site with nice shallow lagoons and plenty of coral patches to pot around.

After the a few days of diving what better way then to finish it all off with an aussie BBQ. Thanks for the great dives; it's been a pleasure.

Congratulations Michael Woelfle on completing his Advanced Open Water Course.

Thanks for all the great comments guys, was a pleasure to have you on board.

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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