In late November/early December 2006 Eve and I spent three weeks in Sydney. Eve said the water would be too cold for her to dive in but naturally I managed to squeeze in a few dives. Forty-seven to be precise! (And a further five at South West Rocks) The water did not seem cold to me. In the British summer I happily dive in the UK in a semi-dry or 5mm wetsuit in water temperatures which peak at 19º. While I was in Sydney the water temperature was generally around 19º so it seemed warm to me. I really like Sydney, it is such a vibrant and interesting city with a fantastic natural harbour. Eve and I did both a daylight and evening BridgeClimb, that is guided climbs over Sydney Harbour Bridge, 134 metres above Sydney Harbour as well as daylight and evening Skywalk on the roof of, 260 metres above Sydney. The BridgeClimb and Skywalk photos on this website are the copyright of BridgeClimb and Skywalk.
We stayed at the Quest Grande Esplanade apartments in Manly, apartments which I would happily recommend to anyone considering staying in the area. Our apartment was very convenient for some excellent local shore dives, Fairy Bower, Shelly Beach, Little Manly Cove and Manly Cove. And as I hired a car I also dived Camp Cove on Sydney South Head and Clifton Gardens in Chowder Bay. My shore dives were a mix of independent solo diving or diving with guides from Pro Dive (Manly) or buddies provided by Pro Dive. Jon Shaw and his guides at Pro Dive were extremely helpful and friendly, in particular Ben Liddle who I was fortunate enough to accompany on several shore dives. With Catfish, Scorpionfish, Cuttlefish, Squid, Wobbegong Sharks, juvenile Port Jackson Sharks, Old Man’s Wives, Blue Groupers, Sergeant Bakers, Sea Horses, Stingrays and Flying Gurnards, I thoroughly enjoyed these shore diving.
All of my boat diving was with Pro Dive’s Sea Life V with Skipper Phil Hawley and first hand Graham Lloyd proving unfailingly helpful. Phil and Graham took me to Magic Point, North Bondi, Old Man’s Hat, Flagstaff, The Blocks, The Cascades, Wedding Cake, Dee Why Wide, North Head Wall, Blue Fish Point, The Apartments, Manly Bommie and Quarantine as well as a dive site I dived both from the shore and the boat, Clifton Gardens. Toward the end of the holiday I dived a few times with Nicci Johnson, a remarkable local dive guide who is extremely informative and knowledgeable about the local marine life. I wish I had dived with her more often, I shall certainly try to do so the next time I am in Sydney. Another missed opportunity was the chance to dive with Dave Murrell who was often on Sea Life V but who I did not get to know until I went on a trip with him to South West Rocks near the end of my holiday.
My first dive from Sea Life V, my dive 1336, was at Magic Point. The Atlas of Australian Dive Sites lists the author’s favourite five Australian dive sites, one of which is Magic Point. It lies about 14 kilometres south of Sydney Harbour and is well-known for its resident Grey Nurse Sharks that can usually be found in a large undercut section of a cliff wall 15 metres below the surface. My buddy for this dive, Paul White brought with him a pair of underwater scooters and were quickly reached the undercut. This was my first opportunity to see a Grey Nurse Shark underwater. They are certainly impressive-looking sharks, although despite their fearsome appearance, they are not considered dangerous. In addition to Grey Nurse Sharks we also saw Old Wives, Yellowtail Kingfish, a Port Jackson Shark and a Crested Horn Shark. Not bad for my first Sydney boat dive! A short while later Paul and I were back in the water with the scooters at North Bondi and I saw two Weedy Sea Dragons, another first for me. Also memorably, as I surfaced at the rear of the boat I narrowly missed a stream of vomit from a seasick diver retching over the back of the boat!
Further dives on Sea Live V produced numerous sighting of Wobbegong Sharks, Gurnards, Crested Horn Sharks, Grey Nurse Sharks, Stingrays, Weedy Sea Dragons, Cuttlefish, Octopus, Bull Rays, Catfish, Eastern Blue Devil, a Fiddler Ray and Sea Horses.
By chance Tim Sheerman-Chase, a fellow member of Ashford Dive Club in the UK, happened to be in Sydney on 4th December, my birthday and agreed to join me for two dives on Sea Life V. In the surface interval after the first dive Skipper Phil surprised me with a birthday cake and encouraged everyone to sing Happy Birthday to me. I suffer from seasickness all too easily and with Tim as my buddy, I had a fellow sufferer! Having been diving on Sea Life V for a while, I was far less susceptible but poor Tim did not feel too well and felt it best to miss the second dive, my dive 1381. This also happened to be my 200th dive of the calendar year. In 2005 I had completed just over 200 dives, the first time I had done this in a calendar year. I had not anticipated repeating this statistic the following year. In the absence of Tim for the second dive I dived with Graham and after the rest of the group who were low on air surfaced, Graham kindly pointed out several huge Crayfish. They were bigger than I had ever seen before. Unfortunately they well-hidden at the back of a cave where photography was impossible. Graham also pointed out three large Wobbegong Sharks and I spotted a Golden Crested Weedfish which apparently is rarely spotted. This was my last boat dive in Sydney and an excellent boat dive to conclude with. Later Eve treated me to an evening Skywalk on Sydney Tower followed by dinner at The Sydney Tower Restaurant, the highest revolving restaurant in the southern hemisphere. While we celebrated my birthday the restaurant slowly revolved taking seventy minutes to complete to complete the full three-hundred and sixty degree panoramic view of Sydney. A fantastic birthday dinner and a really enjoyable dive trip.