Sunlight through Kilsby’s Sinkhole

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  5 Responses »
Jan 162012
 
Sunlight through Kilsby's Sinkhole

About the site Kilsby’s Sinkhole is perhaps the single best reason to do your Deep Cavern course with the Cave Diver’s Association of Australia. With crystal clear water filling the huge open amphitheatre, other divers appear to be swimming through space. Moving back under the roof at the deep end allows you to look out into the sunlit daylight zone. Alternatively, you can swim on down between the white limestone with trimix dives allowed to 60m. It’s been my favourite dive in Mt Gambier for years, although closely followed by Piccaninnie Ponds and Tank Cave. I took some photos in here back in winter which were nice but not stunning. They were hampered by the high sides of the sinkhole blocking [read more…]

Colours of a temperate reef on Nepean Wall

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  2 Responses »
Jan 092012
 
Colours of a temperate reef on Nepean Wall

About the site I’ve talked about the wall between the Heads of Port Phillip Bay before. A stunning dive at slackwater a short boat ride from Queenscliff on the west or Portsea or Sorrento on the east, several kilometres of colourful reef makes for hundreds of different dive sites. Boat passage through the Heads and out into the open ocean can be difficult when the weather is bad, restricting the access to the wrecks outside. However, some bits of the wall are always accessible at the right time of day although visibility can be very variable. Slack water dives when the tide has been ebbing out of the Bay and the ocean is about to flood in through the Heads [read more…]

Cave diving training in Goulden’s Sinkhole

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  1 Response »
Jan 022012
 
Cave diving training in Goulden's Sinkhole

About the site Gouldens is the cave diving training hole in Mt Gambier. Characteristically green and murky, all three levels of CDAA cave diving training start with dives here. Simulated equipment failures and appropriate emergency procedures are demonstrated and practised. By the end of a training course, the black organic silt across the bottom of the hole is usually evenly distributed throughout the water, with vis reduced to a few feet. As a result, very few divers get back in here for what’s possibly a nice dive. I say possibly because I’m one of them, and I haven’t dived in Gouldens without an instructor in the water, either for my training or when assisting with someone else’s. About the dive [read more…]

Clownfish at Layang Layang

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  1 Response »
Dec 262011
 
Clownfish at Layang Layang

About the island Layang Layang is a small coral atoll located in the South China Sea, about 300km north west of Borneo. Officially part of Malaysia, the island houses a Malayasian Navy Base and the Layang Layang Island Resort. Available activities include diving on the coral wall that drops 2000m into the depths, and jogging up and down the airstrip (safe, as the plane only lands three mornings a week). Being so small, Layang Layang is a place you go for diving, eating and sleeping, and this is facilitated by the schedule. After a wake up call and first breakfast, the first dive is followed by second breakfast, the second dive, lunch, the third dive and then afternoon tea. A [read more…]

Long exposure in the Shaft II

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  3 Responses »
Dec 192011
 
Long exposure in the Shaft II

About the site The Shaft is a massive sinkhole in the Limestone Coast, near Mt Gambier. A solution tube in the middle of a sheep paddock has created a small entrance to a spectacular underground cavern. From 1m in diameter at ground level, to 20m in diameter at the water’s surface a short ladder climb below, the cave expands to over 100m across at the point where this photo was taken, 38m deep. The sinkhole turns into two large tunnels on each side of the central rockpile, with the longer one descending to over 100m in depth. Despite the crystal clear water, the walls are predominantly black and the sheer size of the area means dive torches don’t reach very [read more…]

High flow in Jenolan Caves

 Cave diving, NSW  8 Responses »
Dec 122011
 
High flow in Jenolan Caves

About the caves Jenolan Caves are a major tourist attraction located about 2 hours drive west of Sydney, in the Blue Mountains. The extensive and highly decorated show caves attract 200,000 visitors a year, and have great infrastructure with lighting, stairs and handrails throughout. There are a couple of options for getting off the beaten track however, with the first being the underwater route between spectacular show caverns. The other is new areas of dry cave that are actively explored by local caving groups. One of these, SUSS (Sydney University Speleological Society) was kind enough to invite me, along with Harry, Ken and Wayne, to do some cave diving over a weekend. Unfortunately, it rained solidly for the week before [read more…]

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