Jervis Bay Blitz

So we showed up without planning. There wasn't any camping left at the park.
We found a crappy camp-village thing outside of the nearby town and went snorkeling.
It was ok, we saw an octo trying to be kelp by spiraling his arms up, and a three finned ray.


There's a lighthouse ruins nearby.

They blew it up in the 20's because apparently it was a badly misguiding lighthouse, and even after they turned it off the "moonlight would make it glow" and run ships aground, even though the new lighthouse was operating on the opposite head of Jervis Bay. This is obviously a case of locals getting bored and blowing some old shit up. They didn't mention that on the info board.

The new lighthouse is barely visible in this shot across the bay looking north:

I got in for a dive at Summercloud Bay. It was nice once I swam out to the end of the south head. There were fan corals, which I hadn't seen before.

Some new sponges and flat corals...

And a big new fish! I think it is an Angelfish, because some old fishermen told me. I'm not sure they were so sure. It was big, maybe 1/2 metre.

And just swimming back in the shallows there were little fish flitting. Hard to capture that shimmer in a photo really.

When I got out Karin told me a pod of 10 dolphins were playing on the other side of the bay from me, where I was actually planning to dive but didn't! Kindof a bummer, but still neat. I kinda cut my dive short due to sharky intuition / paranoia. It was a little murky. They say that dolphins keep sharks away though, because they kill them.

The countryside around Nowra is so pretty, so here's a bunch of panoramas taken while driving through.

Look at my face. Buy my hardware. Fair dinkum! -- Karin's favourite billboard. Same day service is kinda a big deal here.

We ended the day with a nice sunset in the kitchen.

Congrats to Rich W. on this fine day.

Workin

All this hard work'in makes me remember my second-to-last semester at Purdue.

I'm making a sheepskin cover for my moto seat for longer trips, which are inevitable as Karin is leaving for the US in a few months.

... and fixing the Subaru exhaust. I learned from Ninja experience that you just can't overdo a muffler repair job. Muffler repair basis functions: [wire epoxy tape sodium silicate paste] and I had to use a 2x4 to pry on my wrench. I sold all my tools for about $50 when we left the US. The total kit here would cost around $500.

We went on a date to Grotta Capri here in Kenso. It was fun, but 15% overpriced. It was Karin's PhD confirmation.

And we went down to Royal Notional Park again, but there were leeches due to a recent rain. I got 4 of them.

And this is where I work! Actually this is where I park with dead rats in the alley.

This is my pet spider that was on my moto handlebar. I threw my keys at him and they bounced through a grate.

And this is just something I really liked running into on the webs this week.

Zonked Tsunami

People at the dive shop said there was going to be a Tsunami.

But it didn't happen here.

This sponge was full of life. These cleaner fish were waiting around for clients.

A moray eel lived in the other side of the sponge, which sounds pretty comfy. This fish is waiting to be cleaned.

These guys live in an overhang.

Here's a nice sponge and a new seaslug found today. Not really the most glorious feller. Points if you can see him.


I'm zonked. My traditional Sunday afternoon nap has left me in a lurch.

Redback

Weapon of choice? Channel locks did not work on this one.

The Steps

Today was a dive at The Steps.
I finally found the Weedy Sea Dragons! Actually they found me. They're really hard to spot! One drifted right in front of my face, then showed me it's mate.


What beeg heeps you have my beautiful mate!


A new seaslug today, can you guess what it eats?

In the shallows on the way back to base...


This post is dedicated to Bart Selz, who likes the Weedy Sea Dragon.