Mika & I headed south down for the w/e with the plan to get in a couple of days of diving down at Busselton.  While we had booked with the dive shop for a couple of reef dives each day we were told that getting out to 4 Mile Reef and Wrights Bank would all depend on the weather on the day.  As the main focus off all the dive stores down there is the Swan wreck and Busselton Jetty you really have to push to get in a reef dive in the afternoon.

As we were not interested this time in diving again on the Swan wreck (did that on a previous trip down here with Mika) we had the luxury of a late sleep-in as we were not interested in the 1st dive of the day - a single dive on the wreck.  After breakfast I confirmed what time we had to be near the boat ramp for pick-up to get a dive in under the jetty with a 2nd dive out at 4 Mile Reef.  Unfortunately it is algae time here right now.  During the months of Nov - Dec the algae takes over so the place does not look as pretty as it normally is, especially under the jetty.  With the advantage of that camouflage a lot of seacritters don't hide away under the pylons as much as they would normally do.  I happily blew off 3/4s of my roll of film on some pineapple fish, a playful cuttlefish, a magnificent coloured large flying gunard that had perched himself atop a small plyon so he was lord of all he surveyed, lots of pufferfish trying to hide amongst the corals and sponges that adorned the jetty pylons and schools of junvenile feeshies.  We checked out the uw observatory that has been built in the burnt out section of the jetty.  That observatory officially opens next Saturday but we have the WAUPS Xmas party on that evening also so zipping down south just for the opening is unfortunately not on the cards. 

Our second dive was out to 4 Mile Reef.  Not as nice as we remembered it on a previous dive here due to the large amount of algae covering everything but still a great spot to check out under all the reef ledges to see what was looking back at you.  Large pineapple fish here and many plate corals which you would not normally expect to see here being such temperate waters but because of the Leeuwin current warming the area up now & again they struggle to survive.  It was only 19C and both Mika & I felt a little cold towards the end of this dive.  Discovered a funny looking bright orange with velvety looking black spots shaped thing the size of a golfball.  At first I thought it was a nudibranch all squished up but once it unfolded itself I realised it was not the normal gilled nudibranch .. may be side-gilled.  Took a few pics of it in the hope of someone being able to ID it for me at the museum if I can't find it in my nudibranch reference book.  Saw a few stingrays .. some were too lazy to move just sitting on the seafloor .. the larger ones were cruising along slowly.  Mika found a velvet fish and fortunately I let him look at it before I tried to photograph it with my Nik uw close-up kit.  In the process of getting near it with the camera the damn thing took off like a rocket to hide under the reef ledge .. all I could do was mutter 'shit' and laugh at my missed chance.  I can count on one hand how many times I have seen velvet fish on our coastline.  Not only are they well camouflaged they are also very good at sitting there motionless amongst the seaweed.  Just before we commenced our safety stop near the boat anchor we chanced across another beautiful flying gunard that was pretending to be part of the seafloor.  Swaying in time with the to & fro of the seaweed it actually did not take off like a rocket when I sneaked close for a good look before trying to take a piccie of it.

Back at the dive shop we checked out the boat bookings for Sunday to see if a reef dive was on.  At that time a double-dive on the Swan was on the cards so we decided to be slackers and dip out of diving that day scheming instead to head over to Margaret River.  After another nice sleep-in we packed up and headed for Dunsborough.  A quick visit to the tourist bureau to get a road map of all the wineries with a little detour to the local bakery for a couple of pies for lunch and then we were off down Caves Road in to wine country.  Checking out a couple of family run wineries we then visited the the Lavendar Complex and a cheese factory. I ended up purchasing a case of wine as a Xmas present for Bill and some lavendar olive oil, dukkah and various chutneys from the Lavendar shop as an Xmas pressie for me mate Woofie with a couple of extra jars of chutney for Mika to take home with him.  Soon it was 2pm so we zoomed off over to Bridgetown to visit a couple of friends on their hobby farm before Mika & I were homeward bound getting in to Perth around 8:45pm.  We did a quick detour to Innaloo for takeaway - the Punjab restaurant where Mika ordered rocket-fuel-like curry and rice while I visited the pasta restaurant.  Tonight I will be dining on pasta with salad (as I cheated and purchased 2 lots) while Mika will be heating up the frying pan to cook his kangaroo steaks.
Viv

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information contained in this email may be private and personal or otherwise confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, disclosure or copying of any part of the information is unauthorised. If you have received this email in error, please inform the sender and delete the document.