...Down in depths with a ship wreck...

In the ocean near Alva Beach is the Yongala Wreck and the dives I did there were absolutely amazing, the whole entire experience was just one major exaggeration.

There is an unbelievably high concentration of marine life around the wreck due to there being no islands or reef for miles, you almost get overwhelmed by the amount of fishes and life that congregate there. Plus its not only the amount of fish that are there but the sheer size of them, its like they've all been on steroids because everything is humungous. And as the wreck is a cleaning station (where little fish clean the larger fish almost like a car wash) you get loads of different species and types of marine life coming by.

I saw massive marble rays, turtles, parrot fish, wrasses, gropers and an eel. Even got to stroke a sea snake - considering this is one of the only creatures that can kill you outright with its venom it was nuts. The coral on the wreck was unbelievable as there was tons of it all brightly coloured and various species. I couldn't help getting excited over everything but luckily managed to conserve my air for a couple of nice long dives.

Unfortunately we couldn't penetrate the ship as it was a graveyard site with the unfortunate crew and passengers still buried in it. It must have been so scary to have been on that ship when it was hit by a cyclone in the early 1900s. From the outside of the ship I got to see the anchor, engine room, ship name and bathrooms.

By far one of the best dives I've done so far and its easy to see why its one of the top five dive sites in Australia and one of the top one hundred in the world. Was so worth doing my Advanced Open Water in Cairns to be able to dive the wreck.

Photo: Sunset at Alva Bay the night before the dive

[Next blog entry -Whitsunday Islands Sunday August 19th 2007]