Melbourne+

What a great last day. After an all-day art museum trip, we took the tram down to St Kilda, south of Melbourne. It was so easy, we got in just before sunset.

It turns out there are little fairy penguins that live there, but it was not their playful season so we didn't see any. The water looked clear and cold, good for diving. It also looked sharky.

There is an amazing library in Melbourne. So cool and full of awesome paintings and old books on display. Any they have these great old oak desks with green glass brass lamps and free wifi. Excellent. There was a line to get in when they opened.

We were pretty tired at this point, but not quite ready to go home to Sydney. We love Melbourne.

Sunset Diving

The Steps is a shore dive site located on the south head of Botany Bay. It is easy entry/exit and probably offers the best return on investment of any dive in Sydney.

The Weedy Sea Dragon is resident here year round, so it's always exciting to hunt for them in the kelp. Andrew found this little buddy.

Lots of stuff down there, but I forgot to put the mem card in my camera, so I was limited to lower-res shots. It still managed to hold about 35 1600px images which was surprising and a great relief.

The exit was the nicest I've ever seen; a full-blown Lisa Frank over the back of Botany Bay. There was a swarm of peaceful jellies enjoying it too. The waves coming over alternately obscured and magnified the colored light just below the surface.

More to say about the above. See those little green slugs on the blue seaweed? Same as the one I found in Gordon's Bay the dive before this one. Possibly juveniles of Tambja Verconis.

Below, an unidentified weedfish that seems to be sporting a tube worm resident on his cheek! I thought it was a juvenile red indian fish, which is much much larger and one of our target fish.

Hopefully not the sunset of my diving period. Still much to see. We are seeking the anglerfish and frogfish which hide in wait of prey here. Apparently very rare because in all my macro combing in the last 50 dives in Sydney I still haven't found one.

Melbourne City Slink

Melbourne was great! Just look at this cake shop. This is as happy as she gets.


We mixed hanging with the cousins for Candan's wedding with a little soft-core urban exploration.


It was a great gathering, even though weddings are not my thing. I was forced to dance.
BTW marriage and weddings are two completely separate things.

Above, reads "Any article put into this box, shall be for the purpose of any enactment, law, or contract, whereby the due posting is evidence of the receipt thereof by the addressee, be deemed to have been duly posted."

This city has depth, and when you put it next to Sydney it just blows it out of the water in so many ways.

Here, La Pistola considers the white poinsettias.

Gordon's Bay Rediscovery (+new slugo!)

Hi-de-ho! Went back to Gordon's Bay for a quick afternoon dive in the good vis. It's been cold.


Just look at this fucking colour.


Purple and orange clash. Maroon doesn't help.







... and the new slug I found. 4mm.