After saying a - very sad - farewell to the crew in Sydney, with a fine
send-off at Strikes Reef, I headed West across Australia.  Before leaving
Adelaide on a bush camping trip headed for Perth, I dropped Viv a mail
hoping she might be free to meet up for a dive, or at least a little
drinkie! :-)

On the trip (a small matter of 2,700 kilometres!) across the giant
Nullarbor Plain, I met a lovely Japanese diver named Natsuko, and when we
re-emerged into civilisation Viv had not only organised a weekends boat
diving, but insisted we stay with her.

The bouncy ride over to Rottnest Island (named by early Dutch explorers who
mistook the islands Quokkas - a small species of Kangaroo - for gigantic
rats) on the dive boat Dorado was skippered by Bill, a friend of Viv's from
the WA UW photo club.  after a short search for a site with diveable
conditions, we decided on Phillip rock, and backflipped into the water, to
be greeted by gritty 10-metre visibility.  The first impression was of the
variety and colour of the encrusting life: sponges, ascidians, bryozoans,
kelp, sargassum, etc etc, hordes of red and black starfish, schools of Old-
Wives and Cleaner Wrasse.

Viv had the Nikonos along, but didn't take a single picture and came out
grumbling about the conditions.  Natsuko and I were delighted to be getting
wet! :-)

After popping into the island settlement to grab a bite for lunch, we
motored round to the next dive site, Little Armstrong Bay, and kitted up to
the sight of a group of divers rather tentatively giant-striding off a
cliff!  'Lemming Diver' certification anyone? :-)

Viz was better - about 15 metres - and we threaded our way through a small
labyrinth of swim-throughs and canyons in a long thin reef ribboning
between rippled sand dunes, schools of Big-Eye flitting beneath the rocks
silhouetted against glowing green light.

Natsuko found an octopus hiding behind a collection of discarded shells,
and I offered it a finger in a 'we come in peace' gesture.  After a couple
of minutes lulling me into a false sense of security, this behemoth (which
must have been more than 12 inches across!) lumbered out of its lair and
fastened on my finger with obvious malice in mind!  As you can imagine, I
jumped, at which the beast realised his cover was blown, and slunk back to
his hole to await a less vigilant victim!

Natsuko and Viv, who had been swimming hither and thither with nary a
thought for my plight at the hands (tentacles?) of this Kraken returned
just in time to have a most unsympathetic chuckle.

The next day, sea conditions dictated we headed for Carnac Island, where a
big gang of Australian Sea-Lions slumbered on the beach.  One game young
male swam over to the boat looking to play, and we hopped in happy to
oblige!  While the girls got affectionate fin-chews and kisses on the
forehead, our boy (obviously jealous!) bit me on the bum! :-)

The last dive of the weekend was circling an islet round the corner from
the Sea-Lions, with some rollercoaster surge and really mucky water.  There
were plenty of Nudibranchs, biscuit stars and Black Damsels darting about
among the swaying Kelp and Sargassum, and Viv found a beautiful Blue Devil,
black with shimmering electric blue details along his flowing fins.  A big
shoal of large, silver Southern Drummer circled mysteriously round the
rocks on the deep side.

After seventy-odd minutes, we were all pretty chilly, and starting to get
queazy after being pushed up, down, left, right and backwards by the surge,
so we headed back to feast on Tim-tams and coffee before the ride back to
Perth!

It was an excellent weekend, and I'm so grateful to Viv for organising it
that I'm not even going to mention her sexy dive tights (pantyhose).

...Ooooops! :-)

Cheers,
Huw

--
"A wise diver will refrain from written descriptions of his experiences"
  - William Beebe.