BurbleChaz

On Thursday, my last day of holiday before starting the Fantastic New Job, we went snorkelling at Shelley Beach. First, since income is now a certainty, we went shopping. The excellent dive shop had some fins in my size, which means I don't have to use my cheapo bodyboarding fins. This should give the skin on my ankles a chance to regrow. Secondly, we went to see the people at Rip Curl. The assistant was reaching for a wetsuit in my size before I'd climbed the stairs. Spiffing.

Since we'd had such fantastic experiences at Shelley Beach before, this time we took a disposable underwater camera. So, wetsuit on, into water, fins on and off we go.

Some Sergeantfish over some weed. The larger, dark fish is a leatherjacket. The weed is surprisingly spiky.

More Sergeants

Heading further along the shore, the weed starts to give way to a rockier bottom. These squid are often around the boundary. They change colour instantly to match the bottom. I want chromatophores, too.

Squid.

Same squid, different angle.

Kicking down a couple of metres to get a shot of this cloud of fish from underneath. The thumb is all part of the artistic composition.

This is me, in SnorkelChaz mode, about three metres down. Picture by The Other Snorkeller

There are lots of these. I did look up what they are. Snappers, I suspect.

Cuteness.

Back in the shallows, some tiny cuttlefish. There is a huge, deep red cuttlefish that lurks around. The Other Snorkeller spotted it the other day. By huge I mean about a foot long.

Another leatherjacket. They have a spine on the top of their heads that they raise from time to time. No idea why.

We'd been told there was a motorbike in the middle of the bay. I was determined to find it, so I headed out a bit deeper and started a square search. On the sandy bottom in about six metres, I spotted this common stingray. I swam down to about four metres to take the shot. If you get much closer, they swim away.

Stingray.

This was my fourth search for the motorbike. I was at the surface in about seven metres then I saw some strange shapes on the bottom. It was at the limit of visibility, and about as far down as I am comfortable freediving. Not a very clear shot, but it is the bike. Honest.

Bike.

The most amazing part of the session happened about half way through. Other People had reached the limit of even a wetsuit-assisted swim, and had headed back to the warmer shallows. I was happily hovering over the reef just by the Bower break, idly waiting for fishy photo-ops when I saw a huge, graceful shape sinuating up from the depths. By sheer luck, I had the camera pointed in the right direction. It's an Ornate Wobbegong. From the picture, it's hard to judge size. It was over 1.5m long, ant it gets longer as the tale gets retold. It glided gently into a space in the rocks right underneath me. Knowing that wobbegongs only attack when provoked is one thing. Being in the water two metres from a predator that weighed more than I did is quite another. Privileged to see such a wonderful animal in its native environment, I headed back to the beach and counted my feet carefully.

Shark.