This is just a quick post to get some more pictures up. No real order here just some updates from outside the confines of the conference room.
The best thing I’ve done so far was to diving down in Byron Bay. As I mentioned in a previous post, the area gets a good mix of big, open water fish and ornamental reef fish. We dove a site called Julien Rocks. These are small bird sanctuary islands just a 10 minute boat ride from the shore. It’s so close that you actually put your wetsuit on at the dive shop, then drive in the back of the truck pulling the boat to the boat launch (which is just the beach–no ramp, just back the trailer down the sand…), hop in the inflatable boat and head off. The dives were absolutely awesome. I have underwater pics but can’t get them off the XD card yet. Here’s a brief list of things we saw: 10-12 grey nurse sharks (the snaggle tooth ones usually aquariums)–all about 8-12′ long, tons of Wobbegong sharks (a couple as big as the grey nurses), Aussie version of goliath groupers, huge jacks, snapper, sweetlips, 5 or so turtles, dozens of small eels, and on and on. The only thing we didn’t see, which the guy I went with saw last time he dove there, was a White Pointer, better know outside of Oz at a Great White Shark. It’s apparently not too extremely unusual to see them there; unfortunately–and yes I mean that–we didn’t see one (though that’s not to say one didn’t see us…). Finally, on the 10 minute ride back to shore we see mother and calf humpback whales and single male humpbacks too (we could hear them “singing” during our dive. Absolutely awesome. Here are some shots of the area above the water.
Lighthouse above Byron Bay
If the rain hadn't moved in you could see Julien Rocks just a couple of Km out past this point. You can see the beach we launched from on the inside of the point.
At least you can still fish if you want to....
It was about a 1/4 mile down to the end of the point and there was about 400 steps. This was on the 4" wide rail coming back up right about at the point where you'd stop paying attention...
Here are some other random pics.
These change collectors for the Guide Dog School are EVERYWHERE!--grocery story, bars, restaruants, bus stops... Jen, you guys need to get in on this action. I guess it is probably a little more profitable when you have $2 coins though.
I know, I know; the sign is for the motorists. Still, for a second it makes you think...
Got to love the Aussies' dedication to telling it like it is. This was outside the train station when I went to the Gold Coast to do seagrass sampling. Geoff from CSIRO, who picked me up, said I could have one or the other but not both.
"The Wheel" on South Bank in Brisbane. 60m (~200 ft) tall.