No Great Whites dwelt within the Cathedral at Long Reef - and nor would you expect to find them there. Instead, we were greeted by more gold and silver than could be imagined in Broken Hill. Pomfrets in numbers which always surprise me, gathered around the Cathedral as if to make it even more ornate than one could imagine. Each visit to this swim through is almost a religious experience. The breathtaking approach, of thousands of fish, through which one must navigate in order to eventually reach the entrance of the Cathedral. Then finding its dark entry as a precursor to seeing the glorious sight of a resplendent blue light emanating from a stained glass effect at its far end. Moving slowly inside, we noticed we were not alone. The silvered features of Immaculate Damsel and other fish within, flashed shades of silvers and blues in every direction. The overall effect of darkness and luminous light, with trinkets of suspended silver, gave a holy effect to this place which inspires both awe and reverence. On leaving this swim through, the magic of that space continued when one transcended from the darkness within, to a blinding light outside. Here, swirling above and around us, brightly illuminated Pomfrets filled both that scene and our hearts with a yearning for this experience to last forever. I have little doubt that people who refer to 'heaven on earth' would revise this expression to 'heaven underwater' if only they were as lucky as we were yesterday when we make our pilgrimage to Long Reef.
It must be said that, underwater, the more you look at a scene, the more you see; and similarly, the more you dive the more extraordinary scenes you encounter. This was both true in terms of our slow penetration of the Cathedral and was equally true when divers experienced different shark encounters in this very same dive: a Grey Nurse shark literally bathed in fish and a Wobbegong with its mouth around a Port Jackson shark. The latter suggesting eyes bigger than its stomach. Notwithstanding this, the Wobbegong was not going to let go of its dinner, breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea. An ambitious, if perhaps a slightly, unrealistic shark.
A Bull Ray approached us, at first as an indistinct shape, and then quickly revealing itself to be a beautiful creature with an elegant movement underwater. It reminded me of our encounter with a Bull Ray last week. Unlike the one from today, last week's had no deadly barb and no tail. Last week, I was asked whether it was a Numb Ray which are, in fact, a fraction of the size of a Bull Ray. The suggestion nevertheless caused me to do further research on Numb (Electric) Rays where I discovered that on at least two occasions, the stomach contents of Numb Rays have revealed a penguin within. Such is the deadly and powerful electric shock from these rays. The Australian Museum also reported the visual 'lightening' effect, during a night dive, of the electricity used to knock out their prey (fish, crabs, and the odd penguin). Last week's Bull Ray had probably lost its tail to fishermen. Like most creatures underwater, including Great Whites, Bull Rays are not known to disturb divers: when we are lucky enough to see them, they are invariably swimming to one destination or another - or simply having a snooze after all that swimming they seem to do.
None of that big stuff was going to be caught on film (or rather memory card - which does not quite sound the same) by Shelley as she was armed with her macro lens: not that I am complaining when you see yet another underwater world opened up by her amazing closeup photography. It has to be said that Shelley 'needs' to take underwater photos, and, it equally needs to be said that, I need to see them, so good are they in peeling back yet another layer of life underwater. She does that peeling back, the way an accomplished artist wields a paint brush. Fortunately, Susan had her camera on hand to record the shark eating-(or wanting to eat)-another-shark scene. Unfortunately, Alex forgot to bring his camera but has promised to do so next time. And David keeps promising to buy a camera housing! The last time he had one he took a video of a Sunfish (Mola mola) off The Gap. Unfortunately, Grant had no camera with him last Sunday when he too encountered a Sunfish here! Every week, underwater, we see things which seem unbelievable even to ourselves let alone to others so I am glad that some of us have a camera (with an underwater housing, and with the correct lens)!
Our second dive was at Blue Fish Point. We took an unusual route to take us to the outer edge of this semi-bay like area. There is something quite special about how pelagics seem to use this place as a sort of pit stop on their travels. Its semi protected aspect probably allows them a chance to catch their breath, take a break, and sometimes have a snooze. And as a consequence, we are often lucky to see them here.
Taking a different route is also another way to see things with fresh eyes as well as to see things we have never seen before. Reaching the edge of the point whilst remaining not too deep, we were suddenly surrounded by so many Pomfrets and Yellow Tail. Pomfrets swayed with the ebb and flow of the water movement, mirroring the seas above trying to break into Blue Fish: but whereas on the surface, a southerly was whipping things up a bit, underwater, at our depth, it produced a gentle lullaby rocking movement. The movement coupled with the moulding and remoulding of shapes produced by these Pomfrets was something one could gaze at and absorb all day long - and much longer than that - if only our air supply would let us remain there that long. Alas, our treat is simply to enter this Aladdin's Cave, to see all its jewels, and then to have to leave - with the same regret as a Cinderella having to leave the Ball before midnight. Staying there longer would not have turned our carriage into a pumpkin, but would have, more mundanely, left us without air. So begrudgingly, we started our long trip back, but, let me assure you, not without any of us having one last look at this extraordinary world we had just visited. I suspect that those on the Lunar Module must have had similar feelings when they fired their rockets to leave the surface of the moon; but I also believe that our experience was so much more enriching, where instead of seeing a lifeless monochrome moon, we had just visited another planet full of life and full of colour. And it's that colour and that vitality which puts a smile on everyone's face: which is why, I think, we 'need' to dive in order to be alive. I cannot imagine anyone could really say they have truly lived unless they have seen the glorious underwater scenes of Long Reef and Blue Fish Point!
I always feel unhappy about leaving out from these reports all the other things we saw: a solitary Moon Wrasse, happily mixing with other fish, and the other fish reciprocating; a colourful school of Comb Wrasses being busy, but not as busy as some Goat fish nearby; and having to cross multiple highways and byways of One Spot Pullers, etc etc. But one cannot include everything into these reports, all those things seen and experienced. At any rate, hopefully, this report does provide some sort of snapshot of our diving yesterday.
Eric