Diving the Great Barrier Reef

[Shadowkiller]

I spent a glorious 15 days on a tropical island, camping under trees laden with nesting birds.

So I got shat upon a lot!

But never mind, the diving made up for it. I spent a lot of time hunting with my camera, as well as spearing Coral Trout for the table. The island we camped on is called North-West Island and is a National Park. Which means it has no infrastructure other than a composting toilet. Everything had to be brought with us, including all water. This came in 15 x 270L barrels which were a complete pain to roll up the beach. Man, we slept well that night!

Nights were pretty cool, especially when the moon was full. Green turtles nest on the beaches, and each night revealed hundreds of these ancient animals crawling up to lay their eggs. Magic stuff.

Heres some pics...
(Not the pics are low res)

First: Beaked Leatherjackets. About 10cm long, real spooky little guys that needed a lot of coaxing to come near the camera.

 

[Shadowkiller]

Interesting new post system! The small initial size makes loading the thread so much faster. Good work Papa Smurf!

Next pics:
1. Blackspot Grubfish - a real camera hog, posed like he was being paid.

2. Blue Angelfish - just spectacular, especially when a mating pair displays..

3. Butterfly fish at a Cleanerfish station. Must have caught sight of its reflection because it "kissed" the lens.

4. Hermit Crab - some of these guys had their homes in shells the length of my forearms. Biggest hermit crabs Ive ever seen

5. The esky/cooler on our boat after a day out. We had 30 people in our group and the days catch was eaten entirely a few hours later.

 

[Pekka]

I am so jalous, stuck here in freezeing cold UK.. with wetsuit that has holes in it.. making the idea of diving just that little more uninviting.... But nice photos there! It always helps a little to see beatiful diving sites on the net when you are stuck on land yourself...

Pekka

 

[Murat]

very nice..

 

[Shadowkiller]

Murat,

I havent forgotten about sending you pics, but my home computer died last night, so I wont be able to send you some full size pics for a while. Need to buy a new hard-drive first, luckily all my pics are on a seperate drive! :crutch

 

[Murat]

no problem dude i am not in hurry. I am also busy with the exams nowadays.

 

[Freediver81]

Beautiful pics Shadowkiller!

Thank you for sharing them!

Said

 

[DeepThought]

Just one thing I don't understand, How come you left this paradise?

 

[Shadowkiller]

Just one thing I don't understand, How come you left this paradise?

Left? As in dragged off the island kicking and screaming?

Unfortunately I had to get back to work after a 9 month holiday. We (the group) left the island on the saturday, I flew back into Sydney on Sunday arvo and was back at work Monday morning 7am. I was crying on the inside...

Luckily this trip is a yearly event, so next year I will be back out there for another 15 days. :inlove

It only cost 950 smackos for the trip and camping fees, add in 200 bucks for flights and its remarkably cheap. Only downside is only having a camp shower to use, you never feel clean...

Some more pics below.

One of the many magnificent sunsets, Giant Trevally, Peacock and Barcheek Coral Trouts.

 

[unirdna]

Wow! You are one lucky bastard!

I hope to see your aussie sunset one day. Sun traveling over the north sky....what a trip . My first 'karma' given under the new system......

.....or not, need to spread it...still....but you have my applause nonetheless.

 

[zag0r]

very nice.
what camera?

 

[Shadowkiller]

Olympus C5050 with Pt-015 Housing. No strobe, no filters.
The main challenge up north is the skittish fish, point a camera at them and they assume youre trying to eat them. Patience was the name of the game. My breath-hold certainly improved!

Due to constant overnight rain (which made sleeping a lot more pleasant) the viz was limited to 10-15m, which made it feel rather like Sydney or Wollongong. ;-)

 

[mishu1984]

that GT is begging to get shot

 

[Shadowkiller]

that GT is begging to get shot

hehehe, after my experience with the last GT I saw shot, I avoid them. My mate shot one of 20kg, it tore his mono in one mad rush, then took off with his shaft. He followed it, yelling all the while for help, till I put a shaft into its brain. Big GT's trash gear. The Aussie record is 60kg.

Gimme Coral Trout any day! Easy to spear, easy on the gear, and soooo tasty! :inlove

 

[Rolando]

Great pics!