Saturday, September 15, 2007

Diving the SS Yongala



I left Cairns on Wednesday - a little worse for wear due to the previous day being my birthday. 26. I'm now closer to 30 than 20. Oh god.

But I managed to haul my granny arse onto the Greyhound bus and make the seven hour trip to Ayr, a tiny town south of Townsville.

After an interesting taxi ride (I had $29.60 on me but the cab driver took me the whole way - despite it being about a $35 ride - oops!) to the dive lodge, I discovered the owners hadn't left me the key to the accommodation...

But after searching spider-webbed boxes, ashtrays, under plants and over ledges, I banged on the door and was let in. The accommodation for divers at Yongala dive is great - polished wooden floors, soft cream sofas, fluffy blankets and character-laden features. Already staying there were hostie Paulina, Chilean guys JP and Claudio, fellow Brit Laura and Israeli Dotti - all young and fun.

The dive day began early with a bit of breakfast and heading downstairs to the dive shop to choose our gear. We met the rest of the passengers - some older aussies - and after a bit of a briefing ("don't go inside the wreck", "don't get eaten by sharks", "do have fun"), we made our way to the beach in an old, bumpy landcruiser.

After a bit of dune bashing in the truck, we saw the boat levered off the trailer into the water on this deserted and totally unspoilt beach.

The boat is tiny - a little turquoise speedboat - which took us off the beach at between 25-30 knots.

The weather was perfect. Low winds of about 10 knots, and virtually pancake-flat seas. The sun was hot but not blisteringly so.

As we hurtled out to sea, we saw whales playing in the distance. The were throwing themselves out of the water and thumping down into the water on their backs. Flicking their tails out as a final flourish.

When we reached the dive site, we geared up in the tiny space and rolled backwards off the sides into the water. We had to haul ourselves along the mooring line because the current was so strong.




And then we were descending into the blue, pulling ourselves downwards on the line as we faced into the strong current. Deeper and deeper until we could see the top of the wreck looming below us. And there it was - the stern of the ship as she lay on her side. She is absolutely covered in corals.

It was hard to take it all in on the first dive. The current was strong and we battled against it while trying to comprehend the amount of fish, the colours of the corals, the size of everything.

Huge Maori wrasse swam inches from our faces, large shovel-nosed rays skimmed the sand below us. Bat fish darted around us and huge parrotfish nibbled at the corals. A two metre shark rested inside the hull. We swam through schools of smaller fish like yellow-tailed fusiliers as they swam around the mighty wreck.

As we approached the bow of the ship, the current was ridiculously strong but we battled it to get to the mooring line at the front of the boat - hard work but worth it. When we turned around we saw a huge grouper looming over the bow. He was enormous - at least 5ft long.




After an interval with tea, cakes and plenty of fruit, we descended for the second time. This time the current was not so strong but the visibility had worsened slightly. This time we could get up close to the corals, look inside at the toilets and bath and explore over and around more thoroughly.




And then it was over and it was back up to the boat and to whisk us back to the beach in the hot sunshine.

After dropping off and washing off the gear, we had a lovely barbecue in the sunshine. The older divers left and us younger ones were left to chill out in the sun and enjoy the accommodation before having a few drinks to celebrate an awesome day.




So thanks to all my family who contributed to my birthday present - you're the best

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