Through the window in Murra-el-elevyn

 Cave diving, Nullarbor  1 Response »
Jun 252012
 
Through the window in Murra-el-elevyn

About the cave Murra-el-elevyn begins as a large doline, or hole in the middle of the desert. Once you’ve lowered yourself 10m below the ground level, scrambled down a scree slope of tumbling rubble and picked your way through the boulders, the water is so clear it’s easy to miss. Stepping down from one rock to what looked like a good place to put the dive gear together gave me a wet foot, and even once I knew where the water line was it was hard to see. Despite my wet foot, it seemed like a good omen. From the entrance pool seen in the photo below, tunnels extend in multiple directions. Several come back up to air chambers with [read more…]

Propellors of the PBY Catalina

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  1 Response »
Jun 182012
 
Propellors of the PBY Catalina

About the site The Consolidated PBY Catalina was a hugely successful American-made flying boat, produced from the 1930s and still in service well into the 1980s. A multi-function aircraft, Catalinas were used through WWII for long distance patrol bombing, as convoy escorts and for rescuing downed crews from the ocean’s surface. This particular Catalina, the A24-11 was being operated by the RAAF as a munitions carrier when she crashed in January 1942. Shortly after takeoff from Kavieng Harbour a wing bomb exploded, and the aircraft went down in approximately 20m of water. Despite another Catalina pilot witnessing the accident and landing to rescue survivors, the 9 crew aboard went down with their plane. About the dive This was my second boat [read more…]

Nullarbor Night Skies

 Cave diving, Other, Roe Plains  No Responses »
Jun 042012
 

Don’t be fooled by the video above….it’s actually a series of photographs. I took this timelapse of the Milky Way spinning through the Australian night sky while camping on the Roe Plains. After a productive day of diving, we returned to camp, stoked up the fire, and settled in to tell tall stories. Despite the crystal clear skies, it was a warm night and I wandered down the track to find a good vantage point for the camera. The warm evening meant I didn’t have to worry about dew settling on the camera, although I did use a small drybag as protection from any unforeseen change in the weather. In this video you can see the shadows of the trees [read more…]