After a brief stay in Thailand in 1996 we went to Hong Kong for a year, where I worked on, what was then, the largest building site in the world. I welded for a year which earned us the cash for me to become a dive instructor. I also bought the equipment to make underwater video, which was a bit basic at the time, but it paid the rent for a good while.
(more…)Tag: Scuba Diving
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Diving
I parked the car in a parking bay by the side of the road and looked out at the panapoly of stars in the sky, the lack of light pollution here means there is no shortage of stars. I could hear the sea in the distance but had no idea that I would wake to the sunrise that greeted me.
After breakfast of yoghurt and strawberries I headed off into the heat of one of the hottest spells I have experienced so far. The temperature in Melbourne was 43 degrees and it would have been around the same here as just getting out of the car was like walking into an oven.
I stopped off at a few tourist attractions like the 12 Apostles, of which there are fewer now as they are collapsing – these are giant rock stacks in the sea that are impressive and worth a view, the last time I saw geology like this was in Mauritania, another dry place. The string of tourists stopping off at each attraction made me feel a bit like I was on a production line but the views were worth it.
Now I don’t like to complain about the heat as I do have readers in the chilly English winter that would swap their mothers for a day of heat, but I felt the need to find some cooling down. The answer came in the form of a dive shop, I drove past, reversed, hopped in and within an hour I was diving off of a place called Warrnambool amongst the surging swells of the kelp strewn bay.
The dive was fun after I settled in to it and after twenty minutes I found myself reclining as the strong swell threw me backwards and forwards off of the reef. The other divers were searching for Crayfish but I felt happy enough to just bob about in the cool water, when we got out my temperature was cool enough to handle any heat.
After this I drove to a wonderful place called Port Fairy and jumped into the sea in a lagoon that allows for good swimming due to the lack of surf.
Right now I’m in another YHA piggy backing the internet connection, it’s what a Cyber Gypsy has to do to get online around here…
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Underwater Video
I was lucky enough to spend a few years making video in Thailand, here’s a video I made of clips from that time.
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