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Saturday, November 10, 2007
Brie and i drove down to Byron bay today to meet some friends from work, and go for a snorkle / dive at a very small island offshore called Julian Rocks, followed by a lazy Byron Bay afternoon lounge on the beach. That was the plan, anyway. Things changed.
Since Brianna's scuba ticket got lost by the scuba shop in Vancouver (they lost mine too) we decided to snorkel while the others dove. Dived? Daven? As we were getting ready, one of the staff came by and said 'Are you sure you want to do this? the conditions are bad...' He continued to tell us that the swell was about 10 feet high, large waves crashing about, and that the snorkeling area was much smaller, due to safety and currents and to prevent you from getting smashed up against the rocks. It wasn't encouraging.
Brianna, wisely, immediately backed out.
Another couple decided to go ahead and do the snorkeling. Now that Brie wasn't going, i asked about converting my snorkel trip to a dive trip. I knew i was in the PADI dive system computer because i took a diving course way back in 1989 when i was barely a teenager. They found my license in the computer system and i got the go ahead to dive. It had been a couple of years since my last dive in French Polynesia... but i decided to do it. It all came back right away. Brianna had a good time cruising the used bookstores in Byron (great apparently) so it wasn't too bad we split up. It was a good thing she didn't go snorkeling... the waves were insane and it started storming and pouring with rain.
After the dive was done, swimming back to the boat i saw the two snorkelers in there huddling and depressed. The waves were so crazy and the ocean so rough, it must have been a horrible experience at the surface.
These aren't my photos, they are from this great website: http://www.julianrocks.net/
But, i did see all the these guys in the below photos!
Sea turtle:
Blue Groper:
Lots of Wobbegong sharks!
Clownfish:
Parrotfish:
Redspot Wrasse:
Blue spotted stingray:
Lots of stripeys:
Yellow finned leatherjacket:
Spotted boxfish:
Spotted porcupine puffer! There was a HUGE guy which swam right up to me, looked at my face - i'm talking less than a meter away, and swam off. The guy was bigger than a loaf of bread. Cute!
Lionfish:
Overall, a great dive!
