Diving Fish Rock: South West Rocks

Originally I had our Australia Day long weekend all planned out. We were going to do the main range track in Kosciuszko National Park, but then most people I asked didn't want to (maybe couldn't) go, and others didn't really give proper yes or nos. So our plans changed and we ended up at South West Rocks to do "one of the best dives in Australia" at Fish Rock.
There aren't many places to stay in the area and so I decided to try out Air BnB. Although I felt pretty awkward rocking up at a strangers house to stay there a couple nights, it was actually pretty great. I think we would do it again in the future if it worked out cheaper than other accommodation.

Sharks!

We were booked in for a double boat dive with Fish Rock Dive shop. There are only two dive shops in South West Rocks and the other one was booked out. The guys at Fish Rock Dive shop were really friendly and even told us some history and pointed out land marks on the way out. It's about a 40 minute boat trip from the Macleay River to Fish Rock. I was a bit nervous again, but there was no panicking on this trip, so maybe that was just a weird one-off.


Our first dive was a shark dive. This just meant we went down near the island (or very large rock) and cruised around the bottom while a lot of grey nurse sharks drifted/swam around us. Apparently there were a few reef sharks and a couple whaler sharks, but we didn't see them. A lot of people ask if you get scared when you're around sharks. I was wondering before this dive too. We have done dives with small reef sharks before but I knew these would be 2 to 4 metre sharks, which is completely different. It's kind of a surreal feeling I guess. There is absolutely no fear, it's just like "hey there's a big shark, oh and another one". I guess, they're just not scary. When you compare them to something like a bear. If you stumble on a bear in the woods it's probably going to charge you and attack. When you stumble on a shark, they don't even seem to see you. They're not innately aggressive like they're made out to be, and they really are just big fish. It helps to know that grey nurse sharks don't attack people.

One of the overly friendly groupers

Unfortunately on the second dive the cave swim through, my ears wouldn't let me past 7m and so I aborted and sat in the boat. So I will let (force) Brandon tell you about that one.

So after Meg left I did the fastest decent I have ever done. I guess it was a similar feeling to how free diving feels only I could still breathe obviously. 24 metres straight down, swimming pretty much as fast as you do when diving. I was probably feeling a bit short of breath at this stage because descents are usually slow and it wasn't helping that my lungs had been compressed more than I've ever felt before. We waited at the cave mouth for a minute maybe for the group ahead to go. I was looking around making sure my torch was working and how much air I'd used.  We then swam off into the cave which was probably the size of a normal doorway in width and about half the height. I didn't worry much, but there was an inkling of a enclosed feeling. What wasn't helping is that I hadn't really put much time into finding neutral buoyancy, so I was a little bit up and down.

A large wobegong

We swam forward some more over a few wobegongs. There wasn't much else at this stage just rock and blackness. After 15 metres or so the cave has a chimney that you follow, so we turned to go up. Along the way there were large crayfish and once at the top someone's light caught a Black Snapper, which would have easily been 60cm long. It was kind of just floating there at the top of the cave, wasn't swimming anywhere. Now there was a bit more life around and more things to look at. That is pretty much the greatest downfall of diving at the moment; there is never enough bottom time to look at all the things you could. I was in the group consuming the air the quickest so I guess we went through a bit faster than a more experienced group would have.

Seeing the deep blue, but clear water with fish swimming all through it was quite pretty. Also at one point we went to an air bubble that is 5m underwater. I had my photo taken there. We also observed a few trumpet fish as we were leaving the cave. Sea life petered out after that, just a few smatterings of fish were about. I did stop over a small bit of coral and see a black clown fish about the size of a fingernail. At this stage we were on the way back because I was running low on air. Our guide led us till we could see a rope and we went over and, while at safety stop, there were quite a few butterfly fish around which helped to pass the time. Although I wasn't paying that much attention as my air went below 10 bar, I was keeping a close eye on my remaining air.

Over all it was a good day, and some good diving. I don't know if we would bother going back to do any more though. Other than the sharks there's not all that much to see. Being near large sharks is really amazing, but diving somewhere that has more macro life is much more interesting. I know we'll go back to Swansea again and again, partly because it's so close!