Fairy Bower

• 50mins to about 7m
• Air, 3mm wetsuit
  
• 12m vis - very nice
• Clear skies, warm air temp
• 18 degree water
• JCJ, John Hempy and Grant
• High tide

Fairy Bower again delivers the goods. After the comedy of errors that came before and as we got into the water the four of us descended. John was hands free, Grant was trying out a video camera and I had my point and press Olympus Mju and JCJ had a large rock to compensate for the weight he had handed to Grant. The water was chilly but bearable. I knew I'd be cold in the 3mm but OK for a single, shallow shore dive. The water had a blue tinge and was lovely and clear. There were a few small fish in the shallows but the first thing to catch my eye was a flathead. We managed to disturb it, followed him for a while and I eventually managed to click off a couple of shots - including one with its mouth wide open.

We swam out over the sand and failed to find the sharks that I now guess winter elsewhere. Next highlight was a small octopus in a hole. He (he? let us assume...) had a collection of shells and one in particular that looked to be his favourite. So I gently took a hold of this shell and slowly moved it away from him. Out came one suckered arm that I thought would attach to the shell. No; it attached to my hand. Then out snaked another arm that also made its was towards my arm. I started to gently pull away and somehow managed to ppull a complete octopus from his hole, coming out doing a flare thing as he tried to engulf my hand. I quickly placed my camera between myself and him, he went into reverse, flashed white, went back to his normal colour and back into his hole. A little shaken but forgetting how cold I was I decided to leave him alone - I'd managed a few pictures before pissing him off.

We pootled some more towards the rocks where I found a porcupine fish before Grant pointing out a Port Jackson Shark - a crested horn shark, ancient looking thing. They come into the shallows in the winter. We found three of them as the dive progressed, one that I cornered and took some pictures of as we made our way back to our exit point. Old wives, various wrasse and grouper, schools of bigeye and yellowtail, shrimp and loads of other stuff were on display and it was, as Fairy Bower now always seems to be, lovely. So I didn't complain about the loss of feeling in my feet. 3mm eh?