22 April - Who needs the Poor Knights?

The sea was pretty flat today and we booked to go diving with AquaQuest at Mullaway just 10 minutes up the coast. At North Solitary Island the water was 25C with really good vis. As soon as we descended, we saw two massive Bull Rays (Irwin killers) swimming very actively in mid-water, which you don’t often see.

We followed them down the channel into deeper water where a several males were courting a couple of females and gliding around in a mating dance.

These Bull Rays were 2 metres across and they took no notice of us at all, one skimmed right over my head like a Stealth Bomber and joined in a 4-ray-pile-up on the sand. This is exactly what we’d gone all the way to the Poor Knights islands in New Zealand to see (and didn’t) so it was fantastic to see them at our local divesite!

In some places the anemone beds, clown fish and soft coral colonies look just as good as Thailand or Fiji.
Saw plenty of Wobbegong carpet sharks, a huge female green turtle and this White Tip shark was sleeping in a cave (until Andy got bitten by a damsel fish and flinched – which spooked the shark!)