Today was our first separate vacation day. Originally I hadn't planned to, but Jill convinced me to do some diving during our drive up. She assured me that she'd find something else to do while I was out. Check out her blog for updates on what she did.
We got up really early in Port Macquarie and drove to a place called South West Rocks. There isn't much to this town, except for a dive charter to one of the best dives anywhere in the world. The place is called Fish Rock Cave and consists of a dive that takes you through an island!
The ride out was unlike anything I've ever done in a dive boat. In the bay, the seas were running like 4-6 feet and we were in a very small boat. Impressively, everyone leaving the bay is required by law to wear a lifejacket because boats sink so often. The passengers were also issued rain coats because there were so many waves breaking over the bow. It was wet and wild just trying to get to the dive site.
The first dive was pretty good. We had a new diver on the boat, so the dive master wanted to make sure that she was comfortable before the cave dive. We dropped into a hole near the island and ran into about 30 or 40 Grey Nurse sharks. We swam around comfortably with them and they didn't even bother with us. In fact, if you held your breath for too long, they'd forget you were around and start bumping into you. We also ran into a bunch of Wobbegong sharks which were a study in calm. I saw one of the other divers put a hand within two inches of the mouth of one of them and it didn't even move. It was impressive.
During the safety stop at 5 meters, the rough surface started to get to me. We were banging around and by the time I got on the boat, I was feeling pretty bad. For the first time in my life, I got sea-sick. Not great. :(
The second dive totally made up for it though. We dropped down on the seaward side of the island, lined up in single-file and entered the cave. It was amazing! There were corals and lobsters and odd looking fish. It's completely dark during much of the interior, so it was pretty easy to get disoriented. Towards the end, there was even a bubble cave at the top and we surfaced and had a look around.
The end of the day involved me sleeping during the drive to Coffs Harbour. The town wasn't great and dinner was a fiasco. I'd have to say that we were happy to see the back of it the next morning.
Jill Update:
Apparently, Jill had a fabulous day... but only when I wasn't there. As soon as we reunited, things went downhill. We lost a credit card, ended up eating nothing but ice cream for dinner, and staying in a shady hotel. Good thing we're shortly going to be in Cairns, where we'll spend most of our time apart.
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