Elk River past sump 4

 Cave diving, Victoria  8 Responses »
Apr 152013
 
Elk River past sump 4

About the cave By the looks of things, Elk River is going to be taking up a lot of my time this year. Elk (aka the Murrindal Potholes Eastern Master Cave) is the streamway system underlying the Buchan Potholes Reserve. The streamway was first discovered in 2006 by the VCLT and the sump first passed by Jim Arundale, later joined in exploration by Agnes Milowka. This weekend just gone the cave has been extended to nearly 1.7kms with a fantastic dive through sump 7 and beyond by Steve Fordyce to add 115m of line, assisted by Ken Murrey. As the end gets further and further from home, the effort required to put new cave on the map is going to increase [read more…]

Shrimp on the wreck of the Ozone

 Macro, Ocean diving, Wrecks  1 Response »
Apr 082013
 
Shrimp on the wreck of the Ozone

About the site I’ve been talking a lot about cave diving recently…because that’s pretty much all I’ve been doing. I rectified that this weekend with two lovely dives out in the Bay. The wreck of the Ozone lies very close to shore and half out of the water at Indented Head, on the Bellarine Peninsula. I waded out towards the isolated danger marker and the struts of the wreck sticking up, and I reckon there were only a few times during the “dive” where I wouldn’t have been able to stand up. The hull stretches out flat on the sand and then there’s a few sticky-up bits down one end. About the dive After a lovely dive on Lonsdale Wall [read more…]

A shot in the dark in Weebubbie Cave

 Cave diving, Nullarbor  5 Responses »
Apr 012013
 
A shot in the dark in Weebubbie Cave

About the trip I’m winding my way down through the Adelaide Hills this morning, after watching the sunrise peek through the clouds. After time spent in the desert the road signs seems like information overload and there’s a lot of people around. We spent the last week at Weebubbie Cave, just over the West Australian border. Weebubbie is beautiful, and not just because you have to appreciate something once you’ve put in so much hard work to get there. Weebubbie has massive tunnels lined with white limestone and full of crystal clear water. From my point of view it was basically a week long photo shoot and I certainly flattened a lot of batteries in the process. Lighting the huge space [read more…]

Rocks, reflected

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  No Responses »
Mar 252013
 
Rocks, reflected

About the cave The photo above was taken under “Lake Ayre”, which is on the gold line in Tank Cave. Given its convenient location I usually swim under it at least once on a weekend in Tank, on the way home from the further reaches of the cave. It’s a completely enclosed air space composed of bubbles exhaled by passing divers. When first approached from back in the tunnel, you can look up and see the still, mirrored surface. Once divers swim underneath and exhale the ripples begin, spreading outwards to the walls on either side. About the shot As I was putting together my talk for OZTeK last weekend I spent a lot of time trawling back through my [read more…]

A winning shot in the Shaft

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  9 Responses »
Mar 182013
 
A winning shot in the Shaft

Many thanks to all those who dropped by to see me at OZTeK 2013 this weekend…I had a truly excellent time, and I hope you did too! For those who couldn’t make it, my photograph above won first prize in the cave category of the photo competition. I’ve been keeping it under wraps until the show and I’m very glad to be able to share it with you now. In my talk on Saturday morning I walked through a little of the effort that went into creating this shot. After initial attempts at a tripod based shot in the bottom of the Shaft way back in August 2011, and two separate dedicated trips in summer 2012, this January I put [read more…]

Juvenile leatherjackets under Rye Pier

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  No Responses »
Mar 112013
 
Juvenile leatherjackets under Rye Pier

About the site Rye Pier is a long sandy swim down to the end. It’s known for seahorses hanging out on the pylons, and once a year playing host to the spider crab migration. Last week I’d heard a rumour the spider crabs were out and about. It seemed a little unlikely especially given last year I dived with them in May. With the weather looking beautiful for any kind of dive, we decided to head down to Rye anyway and see what we could see. About the dive We walked down the beach and into the water, rather than walking along the top of the pier in the very hot sun. After a bit of wading, this meant swimming through [read more…]

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