In December 2018 my partner Asa and I left Utila for six weeks to visit his family in Newcastle, NSW Australia. After dabbling in the wonders of shore diving from Nelson Bay (see this blog post to read more on that), we wanted to fork out the cash for some epic nearby boat diving. When I say 'fork out', this is coming from two people who are not used to paying full price for diving, let alone paying at all... (all my dive professionals here are you with me?!) Up until this point in our trip we had been shore diving several times and only needed to pay for air fills and the hiring of tanks and weights, costing roughly 10 AUD per dive - cheap as chips!
After some online research and helpful tips from other divers, we decided to head for South West Rocks, a 3.5 hour drive from Newcastle and home to the popular dive site 'Fish Rock Cave'. This site is known for its abundance of megafauna, including a large number of resident Grey Nurse sharks. As I've mentioned before in my blogs, up until this point in my scuba history the only shark species I had encountered were Nurse sharks and Whale sharks, both of which can be likened to puppy dogs (Whale shark expert Simon Pierce actually refers to them as 'the Labradors of the ocean', and I couldn't put it better myself). I was excited to encounter 'sharky sharks', as I like to say, and felt only a little nervous. I adore sharks, I respect them and I want to see them protected, but that doesn't mean that when I enter their environment I don't feel somewhat vulnerable; and honestly I think that everyone should, as it demonstrates our respect for them!
Anyway, as I said, I have written about my feelings towards sharks in a previous post. So Asa and I made the drive up to South West Rocks and found a nearby camping ground to spend the night before an early wake up call to go diving. After checking out the camp site we went into town in search of hot chips and beer before walking up to the lighthouse and finding a stunning backdrop for our dinner. To no-one's surprise, we had somewhat of a sleepless night in the back of the car (a rogue mosquito chose to spend the night with us) and I opened my eyes around 5am to discover a kangaroo staring blankly at me through the window. After rising to stretch out our sore bodies, we strolled over to the beach for an early morning refreshing dip in the ocean.
[Morning visitor at our camp site!]
[A quick sunrise dip in the ocean before going diving]
We made it to the dive shop, set up our gear onto rental tanks and followed the dive truck to where we were due to set sail. Fish Rock is located 2km off the coast of Smokey Cape, South West Rocks and the island itself is 120m long, known as the one of the largest ocean caverns in the southern hemisphere. For our first dive, we moored up to the dive shop's personal buoy (a luxury that was new to me!) and we listened to our guide's briefing. We were in a group of 5, with Asa and I being the most experienced customers and a family of 3 who were all advanced certified (due to the depth and moderate currents at this site, all divers must at least be advanced certified), along with two dive guides. This proved very useful for Asa and I due to the fact that the family in our group ran low on air far quicker than us during both dives, so we were able to continue on with the second guide. I'm not sure if this is a ratio that the dive shop follows for every dive or whether we just got lucky that day by having the second guide join us, but either way were very grateful!
For our first dive we explored 'The Shark Gutters', with an average depth of 24m and an overwhelming abundance of Grey Nurse sharks. During our briefing, we were told to remain close to the walls on either side of the gutter, allowing the sharks to cruise past us in the middle; this being for two reasons: 1) So we would get the best view of the sharks, and more importantly 2) so we wouldn't disturb the sharks and risk spooking them. I can only really describe this experience by likening it to being on one of those two-way conveyor belts at an airport, travelling across a terminal to get to your gate. As divers, we were gliding in one direction as the sharks passed us coming from the other. There were sharks next to me, underneath me and above me. I was taken aback at how calm these toothy sharks were, completely unphased by our presence... which of course should've been a no brainer considering the high traffic of divers visiting this site every single day; but for me it was a first, and it made me feel at peace in their company.
[On the 'conveyor belt' in The Shark Gully with many Grey Nurse sharks]
I surfaced from that dive feeling on top of the world, eyes wide and smile even wider. Then we caught word from the dive shop moored up next to us that they had just encountered a group of Hammerhead sharks as they exited the cave swim through, the same route we were set to take for our second dive. Our dive guides seemed fairly calm by this news and I couldn't tell if it was because this sighting was all too common for them, or it was so rare that they weren't getting their hopes up because the Hammerheads would be long gone by the time we got down there. Either way, my hopes couldn't be contained and they were already sky high. The prospect of encountering not just one, but a GROUP of Hammerheads was mind-blowing to me, and the remaining minutes of our surface interval dragged like hours.
Back in the water for our second dive I was very excited, because Hammerheads aside, this was the infamous cave swim-through that we had come all this way to do. We entered the tunnel entrance of the cave at 24m, swimming carefully over a carpet of sleepy Wobbegong sharks. Once inside, we shuffled up a chimney-like vertical passageway, our torches catching the reflective eyes from countless painted crayfish occupying every nook and cranny in the rock wall. Then we emerged into the light zone and approached a large sandy opening, signalling to us that this was the cave's exit. During our dive briefing, we were informed that this is where many Grey Nurses are often found lingering, and also where the previous group spotted the Hammerheads; but this time for us the opening was clear, empty of any sharks.
[Dive site map taken from the Fish Rock Dive Centre website]
As we exited I was positioned next to Asa and our dive guide made a sharp left out of the cave, but an enormous Bull Ray the size of a round dinner table caught my eye and I began drifting towards it for a closer look. Then I felt Asa's hand tugging on my wrist at the exact moment a strong surge of current pulled me in the opposite direction. Ah, that was why our guide had taken a sharp left and why Asa was pulling me back, because this current was like no other I'd ever experienced (and honestly that's not saying much as I have barely experienced any prior to this dive). Swimming into that current was genuinely HARD and I felt for the family in our group having to battle through it; which is why it came as no surprise to us when one of the guides ascended with them early due to low air, and we stayed down to explore more.
[Making our way towards the cave surrounded by fish!]
Aside from the obvious big ticket item of encountering the many stunning Grey Nurse sharks, I also saw my first Bull Ray, hundreds of new (to us) fish species swimming in enormous schools, countless Wobbegong and Port Jackson sharks, giant Blue and Brown Groper, moray eels, nudibranchs, and Green turtles just to name a few. During other seasons you may get lucky and see Giant Cuttlefish (and their eggs inside the cave!), Leopard sharks, Lion's Mane jellyfish, and both octopus and Loggerhead turtles are regularly spotted here as well.
All in all, I would highly recommend venturing out to this area of NSW for boat diving at Fish Rock Caves. It's well worth the trip and money to be surrounded by not only an array of sharks but also an endless list of other remarkable marine life. Whilst the conditions here are by no means 'expert level', they are advanced and therefore diving here is great for those fair-weather divers who are wanting to expand their scuba horizon and become more comfortable in moderate currents, non-Caribbean-like visibility and diving in slightly thicker exposure (I wore a 5mm and the water temp was approx. 16°C/ 60°F). I would also recommend Fish Rock Dive Centre who we went with as they are one of the smaller dive operators in South West Rocks and we felt drawn to their 'dive family' vibe. As customers who are dive professionals, we really valued how their staff gave us the freedom to explore but ensured that we received thorough dive briefings, regularly checked our air and made an effort to point out marine life; honestly, I'd rather be treated like a beginner diver when I'm diving at a totally new and unfamiliar site - I want to know all of the details and be shown all of the hidden treasures!
I hope you all enjoyed this dive log of mine as it was an experience that's left a deep impression on me.
Safe diving & happy dreaming,
A.
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