9/11/2006 - Cod Hole, Julian Rocks, NSW, Australia

It had been a week of wondering if we would dive. The weather had been blowing a gale, and raining a bunch. Our dawn dive got kicked back to mid-morning so there was time to cancel if we needed to.

Thankfully, it was all systems go, and our dive club went out to Julian Rocks.

For those of you who haven't dived at Julian Rocks, some of the most fun is had before you even leave the shore. You get driven down to Clark's Beach in old jeeps, and the whole way down the level of excitment is incredible. Everyone talks about their recent dive highlights or what they are hoping to experience. By the time you get to the beach you are champing at the bit to get at it.

First though, there is the surf launch of the inflatible. In challenging conditions, we females made it on board with much tushie in the air and much giggling. Naturally the guys just bounce in and look smug.

The trip out was awesome, not a cloud in the sky and swell the size of mini's. Just fantastic.

We get there and the current is too strong for two of our proposed dive sites, so we get dropped by Split Boomie.

As soon as you get in you notice the swell and the current are still sizable. Unfortunately this made my so so camera skills even worse. Also, I was using a steel tank and didn't compensate my weights so I had a few bouyancy problemos - but got this sorted out in the trench.

We headed through turtle trench to the Cod Hole. This was exciting to me, as while we had tried to make it last time during a training dive almost a year ago, one in the class got low on air very fast so we all turned back. This time though, we fought surge to make it through. Even at 18m you still felt the surge and current through the trenches - big time.

While this wasn't a walk in the park dive, I enjoyed it incredibly as it made me really think about the dive, and every step of the way. I don't often dive in strong current or swell, so it was a fantastic learning experience. One moment that was a hoot was how I got distracted by a cornet fish and missed the wave that my group took off on, so I turn around and RO ROH - no one in site. I took my bearings and caught the next wave and saw the fins in the distance. My buddy (Gloria) and Pete (one of the dive leaders) hung back for me and I got caught up nicely.

Fish we saw - well LOTS - though no GNS - too much surge I think. I heard LOTS of Humpback Whale singing while I was down there too. I saw the LARGEST mother of a turtle I have EVER seen - Pete later suggested that it would be between 80-90 years old to have got to that size... Wish I had of got a pic... oh well. Hugest sweetlip I have ever seen. A few woobies, picaso fish, lots of trevally, and the usual suspects like banner fish and cornet fish.

The afternoon was spent in a lovely cafe reminising on the dive and our joint diving holidays we have spent together... pretty hard to top a day like that - perfect diving conditions? Who needs them!

We went out with Byron Bay Dive Centre and they looked after us fantastically as always.

I dive with Devocean Dive.