With light breezes and a low swell continuing into Sunday, and after seeing the awesome conditions down the coast at Bob’s Hollow, it would have been crazy not to have jumped in the water today. Geoff had said he had a late night and was not up for a dip, despite me trying to convince him that the cool water would be like a refreshing tonic. So a little later in the morning than usual it was just Lisa and I parked up at the beach access letting the tyres down. Gotta love the brass valves to get them down without the fuss of having to check the pressure every time:
Being about ten there was the expected traffic already out, but it didn’t take long for us to find a quiet spot to park up. There is approx. 7km of beach to drive along and most of it has reef just off the shoreline, so you can always find somewhere quiet. We’d been to this spot a few times before and the reason for picking it this time was that I liked the idea the shallow ground to look for more nudibranchs, slugs or flatworms. The one I had found off the river mouth recently (Barren ground) was an Orange Flatworm, and I was keen to find more:
The water felt great and looked pretty clear as I went in. The lush green Sea Lettuce on the shallow part of the reef swayed about. Being close to high tide I thought it may be calm, but the shallow depth here compressed the water making it move quicker. Above me the cormorants didn’t mind me swimming directly under their perch. Lisa told me later they had stayed put the whole time. After a quick look round the rocks without success of finding anything fun I moved on. The ground got deeper and my hopes of finding what I was after started to fade:
I looked for bommies with exposed rocky parts and dived down staring intensely for a flash of colour or that slow graceful movement. Nothing… until I excitedly saw what looked to be a flatwork and I stayed down as long as my lungs would allow me. Waiting for any movement but it stayed completed stationary, and is more likely to be some form of sponge. The detail wasn’t obvious to me in the water, but looking at the image back home, I could make out the small holes through which a sponge would draw and expel water to filter out food:
I scoured the reef and soon decided to end the hunt. A started to just look about for anything else, and while the visibility was great and swell was indeed low it was eerily quiet. The occasional usual fish would poke it’s head out from the weed and watch me carefully as I swam about and only the ever present Banded Sweep seemed to be out in the open. The only shoals I saw compromised a small group of young Buff Bream and smaller fish such as Gobbleguts, Western Pomfret and Anchovy:
I went down to check selves and caves, and went through a few swim throughs but they too mostly seemed devoid of any visible life. I did come across quite a few rock lobsters, and thought Geoff would have had fun trying to catch them only to then find out they were undersized and have to release them. Not a single sea star, ray, squid, cuttlefish or octopus was about. I started to feel I was taking all that I had previously seen before a little for granted, after all I have to date been incredibly lucky with what I have discovered and there won’t always be something new to see:
I came across a group of three beautiful Spiny-tail Leatherjacket and followed them about for a bit, each time diving down at a distance attempting to sneak up and get a good image. Before I got too close they would casually turn their tail on me and head off to the next hiding hole. I would wait for them to remerge and so the pattern repeated, until I gave up. As I flowed the leatherjackets a few Old Wife seemed to hang about, not too concerned about being paid some attention. So I managed to get a lovely consolation prize image:
Heading back I decided to look round the shallow rocks one more time. Again I didn’t find what I was after but did come across a few Threefin, too fast for me, and a small group of Cleaner Shrimps. It was good fun watching them and at times let go of the rock and swam to another part, having such control despite the moving water. Rongy has suggested they may be Boxer Shrimps, so called due to what looks like red gloves just below their pincers. I’ve not however managed to identify them using google, so will have to resort to QuestaGame once more to see if they agree:
It was finally time to head back to shore, Lisa hadn’t felt like coming in and I found her reading her kindle chilling out. I hung all the gear up on the car and supped on a hot cuppa, feeling it warm me from the inside. Looking out at the amazing aqua blue colour of the water I spotted the familiar dark shape of a ray, which turned out to be a Short-tailed Stingray. I pulled my mask on and walked out towards the shape before putting my head under the water, as expected it started to move away. I didn’t chase it and it started to come back directly towards me, and I’ll leave you to watch the video as it then started to scour the rocks for food:
It was an amazing sight, the ray was quite literally inches away from me, as it went about looking for food. Eventually turning round and heading back out, there was no need to follow it after such a close encounter I was more than happy. This time when I got out I stayed out, and after warming myself back up we packed the car. On the drive back we kept looking, in awe, at the colour of the water. Next weekend, like my thoughts about hitting the crags for a climb we may stay away or just have early morning stints at the beach we can walk too, as this part of the beach will no doubt be overrun with tourists in their shiny 4WDs:
Sandbagged 