A sea star at Two Towers on the Great Barrier Reef
Two Towers is a dual pinnacle dive site that’s home to an amazing array of coral and fish life. There are turtles, sea snakes, and giant clams to be found amongst smaller life like wrasses, groupers, shrimp, and cod.
I got a few good shots of the coral structures, including some vibrant feather stars and highly textured mushroom leather coral. I also love the photo of the closed clam, with its dramatic lightning bolt shape.
A juvenile GBR lionfish seen at Pixie’s Reef at night
During the Taka trip there were 3 night dives. I’d only done one night dive before, in Thailand as part of my AOW course, so I’m still a bit freaked out by the experience. The first night I did a flouro dive, which is night diving with a special torch and mask filter to illuminate the fluorescent colors of the corals and some of the fish. I didn’t bother trying to take photos and simply enjoyed the experience.
The second night we dived on Pixie’s Reef and I did bring my camera to try to take some pictures. I found it difficult to juggle my torch and the camera, so didn’t get many good shots. Here are the few decent ones.
The third night I had an amazing night dive on Princess Bommie, where I saw a stonefish, a gigantic hermit crab, and lots of beautiful rainbow fish. However, as it was my last dive of the trip and I didn’t think I’d get good pictures anyway, I didn’t bring the camera for that dive.
A potato cod approaching me just under Taka, looking for some food at Cod Hole
Cod Hole is dive site famous for its family of potato cod that have been fed by visitors for decades. We did two dives at this site, and on the second dive our guide fed the family, giving us an up close and personal interaction with the fish! They are extremely friendly and obviously attracted to people because they know they’re about to get some grub. As a result, I got some really good shots of them. I also saw some some colorful wrasses, butterfly fish, anemone fish, and snapper.
Yellow-Banded Sweetlips at Challenger Bay in the Great Barrier Reef
I spent a weekend aboard the Taka Ribbon Reef Explorer, a 5-day trip organized by Deep Sea Divers Den. It was an absolutely incredible trip where I had the opportunity to dive 14 times on the Great Barrier Reef and go snorkeling with Minke whales, who are in the middle of their yearly migration south. The diving far surpassed my expectations, as the boat took us to far north diving spots that few other companies go to. In fact, one of our dive sites had only been visited by three other dive groups before us!
This set of photos comes from the Challenger Bay dive site, a shallow reef with abundant soft coral formations and schools of angelfish, sweetlips, and wrasses.
Up close and personal with a wobbegong carpet shark at Shag Rock, a dive site off North Stradbroke Island
My first Australian diving experience was based out of Brisbane and North Stradbroke Island in Queensland. First I did a Nitrox course with Dive World at Tweed Heads. Although there isn’t a ton of amazing reef life, there were some impressive schools of fish and a cute Buddha statue to be seen. There were some heavy currents so it was hard to take pictures, but I did snap a few.
Then I ventured off to North Stradbroke Island to dive with Manta Lodge. I did two days of diving there, both at Shag Rock which is a site just off their beach. I saw a few rays there as well as wobbegong sharks and massive schools of butter bream. It was an awesome experience thanks to the great staff at the lodge and it got me all geared up for my Great Barrier Reef liveaboard next week!
A Yank without a Chain 