For Your Eyes Only in Junee Cave

 Cave diving, Tasmania  3 Responses »
May 302011
 
For Your Eyes Only in Junee Cave

About the cave Junee Cave is located just out of Maydena, Tasmania, about a 90 minute drive from Hobart. Unlike the caves in South Australia and Western Australia, Junee is a river cave system, with rushing water flowing out of a dark hole in the ground. A ten minute walk along a beaten track beside the stream, where an interpretive sign by the cave entrance is just the beginning of getting to where this shot was taken. Having climbed over the tourist viewing platform and clambered down to the water, the would-be cave diver needs to lump the gear about 300m upstream inside the cave. Unseen under rushing water, a rocky floor that gets unexpectedly deep in places makes this more [read more…]

The Black and White Raft Room in Burnabbie Cave

 Cave diving, Roe Plains  3 Responses »
May 232011
 
The Black and White Raft Room in Burnabbie Cave

About the cave Burnabbie Cave is located on the Roe Plain, near the Nullarbor Plain in Western Australia. Despite being relatively close to the Nullarbor caves, the Roe Plain caves are completely different in nature. Instead of huge white tunnels with blue water, sidemount access is required to get into the shallow, twisting, multi-level caves. The water is tinted yellow or green and layered with multiple haloclines causing distortion in any disturbed water. The air spaces are poisonous, with what might be high proportions of sulfur and carbon dioxide. About the dive On this particular dive, we were making an excursion into the Black and White Raft Room, relatively close to the cave entrance. The room is very shallow, with [read more…]

Turtles in Fiji

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  1 Response »
May 162011
 
Turtles in Fiji

About the dive In July of 2010, I spent a week in Fiji doing some beautiful tropical diving. With 26 degree water and ocean visibility as you would expect, I clicked the shutter a lot of times. This was also my first trip after purchasing the two Inon z240 MkIV strobes, which I’d taken on one practise weekend in the caves beforehand. We went out with Scuba Bula, who have a very efficient operation set up at the Seashell @ Momi resort. With local dive guides with excellent local knowledge pointing out all kinds of things, I had a ball with the camera. With very small numbers of divers around, we were able to select our dive sites and tailor [read more…]

The Chasm in Piccaninnie Ponds

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  1 Response »
May 092011
 
The Chasm in Piccaninnie Ponds

  About the dive Piccaninnie Ponds is a spectacular freshwater cave formation in South Australia, where spring water filtering up through the limestone has created beautiful formations up the walls. Normally the water is crystal clear on entry, with limitless visibility. After swimming across the First Pond and through the fringing reeds, divers descend into the canyon-like Chasm, where the Dogleg at 40m can be seen from the surface. At the far end the Chasm develops a roof to form the Cathedral. On this particular dive, I turned up at the Ponds with my parents to discover recent rainfall had led to muddy water running off the surrounding swamp and into the First Pond. Vis here was about a metre, [read more…]