In April and May 2019, I enjoyed a 4000 kilometre month long road trip from my home in Nelson Bay, NSW. My first ports of call had been Tumby Bay just north of Port Lincoln on the eastern coast of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia and then Port Lincoln for a live-aboard expedition to Hopkins Island and the Neptune Islands. Next up was Whyalla where I hoped to be one of the first divers to see the 2019 annual migration of Australian Giant Cuttlefish, this spectacular natural event occurring from May to August. I arrived in Whyalla on April 29th hoping to dive with the Giant Cuttlefish the next day. But it was too early for the migration so after overnighting, I drove to Edithburgh on the south-east corner of Yorke Peninsula.
In Edithburgh I met up with my friend Bob “Tango” Lewis, his friends Andrew Green and Steve Wagstaffe and Bob’s son Glenn. Our objective: to dive Edithburgh Jetty. This is renowned for its colourful pylons which are covered in beautifully coloured sponges, bryozoans and ascidians and this 170 metre long jetty offers the possibility of photographing Pot-bellied seahorses, Port Jackson sharks and Leafy Sea Dragons to name but a few treasures. However, the Dive Gods were not being kind. None of these delights were at home or at least we did not see any during our four dives and the underwater visibility was not good enough to take wide angle shots of the sponges on the pylons. Nevertheless I had a good time, enjoying the constant banter with Tango, Andrew, Steve and Glenn, in particular during the daily ritual of trying to squeeze Tango into his wetsuit! Could Tango have put on a little weight? And I appreciated Steve sharing his excellent surface photos which are now on this website.