Back in
January one of the Divas went on a dive trip (without the rest of us Divas -
tut tut!!) to Merimbula to dive the amazing wrecks. She went with a group from
Abyss Scuba and as you will read had an amazing time.....
Australia
Day Long Weekend 2012
Thursday
26th January
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| The motley crew! |
16 divers head south from Sydney
to dive the wrecks of Eden. The six hour drive was broken by a stop at Broulee
which is just past Mogo, south of Batemans Bay. The objective was to locate and
dive Broulee Cave which is off the rocks at the northern end of Broulee beach.
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| Broulee Cave the entry is the middle of the screen |
They say
if you find the right entry point you can do a giant stride entry directly over
the cave entrance which is in 4 metres of water.
We were a little to the east and had a short swim back towards the beach before
descending to find a very large cave entrance. It appears to be a really long
overhang of the shoreline above, which has collapsed to form a tube or tunnel
rather than a true cave.
The tunnel is much longer and wider than I expected. And the visibility was
quite good at around 8m.
Most of
us had torches which helped locate, wobbegongs,eels,shrimp,lobster & lots
of bullseyes. You don’t actually need a torch to do this dive as there is quite
a bit of natural light that filters through the tumble of fallen rocks which
form the outer wall, but a torch will help light the nooks and crannys where
creatures tend to hide.
Outside
the cave we found wobbegongs, a large bull ray and a number of common sting
rays.
Our exit
was via the beach. It was definitely worth the side trip and is a dive suitable
for open water divers.
A further
two hour drive south we arrived at our accommodation, Merimbula Divers Lodge.
The lodge
consists of two very comfortable two bedroom units, conveniently located next
to the dive shop and above a purpose designed area for washing gear and a
secure area to hang gear for drying overnight. It is only a 3 minute stroll to
Merimbula Lakeview Hotel where we enjoyed a cold drink and dinner.
Friday 27th
January
We woke
to perfect conditions. Woohoo going diving !!
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| Eden Wharf |
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| WOOOHOOOOO we're going diving!!! |
It is a
20 minute drive from Merimbula to Eden Wharf where we boarded Merimbula Divers
Lodge purpose built dive boat ‘Scubarpro’ for the 10 minute trip to our first
wreck Tasman Hauler which sits upright and intact in 30m.
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| Tasman Hauler |
Highlights of this dive was the
great viz and blue water, the huge propeller which was more than 3m across and
the fact you can penetrate and explore the entire wreck.
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| Now thats a propeller!! |
OC1 dive
computer Max Depth 27.6m. Bottom time 34 minutes. Temp 18c. Viz 15-20m.
Our
surface interval was spent back at Eden wharf where some of the gang tucked
into a very hearty late breakfast. And at least one person lost it all at the
next dive site !!
We were
also entertained by a resident seal playing among the boats at the wharf.
Back on
board and another short ride to our next wreck the Henry Bolte.
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| Henry Bolte and some locals! |
This
wreck is closer to shore and the viz was not quite as good as on the Tasman
Hauler.
It is a
really interesting site though because the wreck is not intact and the twisted
wreckage has numerous hiding places to search for sealife.
 |
| More locals! |
One
intact section of the Henry Bolte is penetrable and you can see some of the
living areas including the toilets.
There are
a number of reefs scattered around either side of the wreck which you can also
explore.
Sealife on both wrecks included:
Eastern blue devil fish, long snout boarfish, clown toby, sea horse, crimson
banded & maori wrasse, old wives, leather jackets, trigger fish, groper.
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| Six Spined leatherjacket |
OC1. Max depth 25.9m. Bottom time
40 mins. Temp 18c. Viz 10-15m
I would
definitely do this trip again and recommend it to all advanced certified
divers.
AWESOME!!
Jen :) x
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| Me!! |
Our thanks to Kris O'Keefe for allowing us to use some of her pictures :)
