Blue Mountains - Giant Stairway and the Three Sisters

A few days after the Kiana trip I flew down to Sydney and spent a few days in the city. Then I took a train to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.
The Blue Mountains get their name from the blue haze often seen in the valleys. I believe it is due to the eucalyptus trees. Katoomba turns out to be a great spot for sightseeing, with lots of spectacular scenery within walking distance.
On my first day I walked out to the cliffs at Echo Point. Here is a formation called the Three Sisters, basically three very large rock formations extending from the cliffs. Right beside them is the "giant stairway", about 900 steps cut into the sandstone and leading down to the valley floor. Total vertical distance this stairway covers is about 300 meters. It basically just zigzags down along the cliff face, essentially a vertical descent. Guardrails are installed or it would be insane to try and go down. I climbed down and back up, at which point I was pretty out of breath...
Over the next few days I did some more hikes along the cliffs, down along the Katoomba waterfalls, down the stairway again and across to the falls and back up, and so on. Can't handle much more than 7-8 km a day, but that's not too bad considering how much of it is up and down steps. Other than that I've just been working and reading...

It is interesting how most people take this experience in. When I got out to the Three Sisters, a lot of people where on the viewing platform by the tourist center, all taking pictures and walking maybe 50 or a 100 meters down one of the paths. Beyond this, the population thinned out to maybe 1/50th - so at most one out of every 50 people went further than a 100 meters from where they got of the bus. Going down the giant stairway, I saw one other person... It really shows how for most people this is a consumer experience. They pay, get taken to places like this by bus, spend maybe an hour milling about and taking each others pictures, and then leave again. I think they spend more time telling their friends back home about the trip than they actually spend here. I'll have been here at least a week before I leave, and barely feel like I know the area at all or have really experienced it.

Pictures: In the picture of the Three Sisters, note the walkway and tiny black mark of a person on the far left, for scale.

The picture of the stairway naturally only shows a tiny piece, but it was all like this. Metal steps where the sandstone ones had fallen down. In most places the handrail is followed by a vertical drop, down, down, down...

The third picture shows one of the rock overhangs on a path around the waterfalls. Lots of places like this.

Kiana - Little Moments

On the 1st day we had first gone to Whitehaven Beach and then moored at another island. Just as we had finished mooring, 5 or 6 little swallows showed up and sat on a high spot at the back of the boat, chattering away and fluffing their feathers and being all-round adorable. Wonder what they were talking about?

At this spot, we also saw 2 goats high up on the cliff. What was even more entertaining is that a brief but lively discussion ensued, as to whether these creatures standing high on this rock overlooking the ocean were cows or goats. Imagine a cow hanging out on the cliffs! :)

I blinked, and missed what the guy beside me saw - a stingray jumping out of the water. Never did see a stingray on this trip, but my fellow traveler was shocked and awed indeed.

Sunrise on the third day - I was the first one up and stood way in the bow of the boat. With the boat behind me, there was nothing in the world except me, ocean, and a slowly brightening sky.

Kiana - Day 3

Another early start to the day. I got up at 5:30 as soon as they started the generator (for cooking, etc.). Watched a lovely sunrise over the ocean. It was cloudy at first and then the cloud cleared and we had this lovely ball of fire hanging over the horizon.
Immediately after breakfast we went diving again, then snorkeling again while the new divers went on their dives. Saw this large lionfish on this dive:

Snorkeling this time was from the boat since there was little or no current to carry us away. Spent a long time, until they blew the horn for us to come back. For some reason I can't seem to equalize my ears when freediving (diving without scuba gear), so I only went down maybe 4-5 meters and then it hurt too much. So much coral, and again many different types of fish.

After diving/snorkeling was all done we took off right away. This time we were under engine and sail power. We moored at another island for lunch, then left for the last leg back to the harbor. During this time we also settled our bar tabs, packed, and the like. They turned the engine off for the last half hour, so that we were only under sail power and just gently cruised back. Then a little stop just outside the marina, so the captain had a chance to say thank you and farewell. The trip wrapped up around 3:00 pm. I spent most of the next day sleeping - guess I needed some recovery time!

Kiana - Day 2, Part 2

After diving, we had a lovely lunch. It was really cool being out in the middle of the ocean, nothing but water all around. Right after lunch the new divers went diving, and the rest of us went snorkeling. There was a slight current, so we got dropped a bit away from the boat and basically just drifted back over the reef. In some places the coral was maybe a meter below the water, in other areas it drops down 20 meters to the ocean floor. This was a good chance to inspect some things a bit more leisurely, and of course you see a lot more color at the surface (the water absorbs light, starting with red. so you don't see as much color 20 meters below the surface.) The fish ranged in size from barely visible to over a meter in length (Giant Trevally are BIG!). All very friendly, except for the sharks which tend to run away from people. While snorkeling I dove down maybe 3-5 meters a bunch of times to take a closer look at things. Lots of clams, many different corals and a lot of fish. Saw a whole little school of parrot fish feeding on a small area of coral. But I never saw a fish eat another fish, strangely enough. Sure they do, but not something I managed to see.

By the time I was done snorkeling, both groups of new divers were back and it was time for the certified divers to go out again. So I guess that makes 7 dives in one day for the dive instructor...
This time we went through some underwater canyons. We were about 18 meters deep, almost at the ocean floor. And on either side the coral formations go up almost all the way to the surface. The walls of the formations are basically vertical, sometimes with large overhangs. 4 or 5 Giant Trevally were following us around for the whole dive, which the dive instructor said was quiet unusual. Interestingly enough there was litte coral or fish in the canyons themselves, probably not enough light. But as soon as we left a canyon, the whole wall all the way up to the surface would be covered by life again. I saw some huge clams. One was at least a foot long, with a wavy edge. You could look right into the thing - the opening were it pulled in water was probably an inch across. A nice vivid blue (at 18 meters anyway - no idea what color it actually is). So big they don't even snap shut all the way, just close a bit and pull back if you wave your hand over them. One of those could feed a family of 10, with leftovers...

Also saw a type of coral which is basically like a long, crooked wire. Only a centimeter or two thick, round, and sticking out a good 1 - 1.5 meters from the coral wall. Amazing that it is strong enough to withstand the current.

At the end of this dive it was raining, which looked really cool from underneath the water (last picture).
After diving we had supper and just chilled. Went to bed early, since the next day was another 6:00 am start for diving before heading back.

Some more pictures:

Kiana - Day 2

Day 2 started at around 5:30 when the generator motor came on. Got up around 6 and had breakfast. Then the 6 certified divers went on our first dive, followed by the new divers in 2 groups of 4. After diving was done we took off immediately for Bait Reef, which is part of the outer reef. This leg of the trip took about 3 hours, providing a good opportunity to catch up on a bit of sleep.

Once at bait reef, we immediately went diving again. The certified divers before lunch, the new divers after lunch.

On the runabout, heading out to the dive spot, plus a couple underwater pictures:

Kiana - Day 1

I got up around 6:00 am to have breakfast, then it was off to the booking office to put my luggage into storage. They had given me a small cloth bag, this was all you are allowed to take on board. Not a problem though, everything I needed fit easily. Then a 10 minute walk down to the marina to meet the crew and get on the boat.
While still in the harbor we were assigned to bunks and given a brief introduction to the boat. Only major point was "don't touch any buttons". If you activate the emergency beacon when it is not required, the fine is $50 000. Apparently it used to be a $10 000 fine, but a few years ago some asshole activated one as a joke on another boat, and the rescue helicopter crashed on the way to the boat and the 4-man crew died. I do believe they put the joker in jail for a couple of years...

A nice snack was served once we were underway. Our first stop was Whitehaven beach. Or rather the other side of the island from the beach. We took the runabout to shore and walked over the island to the beach, where we spent about 3 hours. This is a pretty unique beach. The sand is almost pure silica - so pure NASA used some to make the mirror for the Hubble space telescope. Went swimming - I must say wearing a stinger suit and going swimming is weird. Beats getting killed by a jellyfish, I suppose.
A nice stack of passengers on the beach:

And me, riding a sand turtle:

After the beach, we returned to the ship and went to luncheon bay and moored there for the night. They have moorings at all the good spots in the park. Supper was made in a barrel on the back deck. It consisted of lamb, veggies, and potatoes, all steamed/cooked for three hours in this barrel. Very nice, lovely way to finish the day. Went to bed early since we planned to be under the water by 7:00 am the next morning for the first dive.

Kiana - Introduction

I spent the last 3 days (March 14-16) on the Kiana. This is one of only 2 boats which goes all the way to the outer reef, instead of just around the islands. It is also a dive boat which of course is really good - you only see so much of the reef when you are snorkeling. It is a sailing ship, but most of the time we were under engine power.

The boat had a crew of three: The captain who was also the marine engineer (responsible for repairs/maintenance as well as running the boat), the cook, and the dive instructor. In the interest of people's privacy I will leave out names, but they are a great crew. All very friendly and happy to answer any questions. I really have to emphasis that they worked very hard the whole time to make sure us passengers had a relaxed and enjoyable trip.

The back part of the boat's deck is covered, so you can be on deck and still out of the sun/rain. This was especially nice because you get a lot less seasick on deck, and it was a bit blustery the first day out. The limit of 14 passengers meant that there was lots and lots of room - fitting everybody on the either the back or front deck was not a problem.

Now to make another 3 entries for each of the days... :)

Geckos and Boats

So I'm walking around the side of the hostel today, and all of a sudden something lands on my face and sticks to me. Pretty sure it was a gecko. Anyway, I screamed like a girl and flung the poor thing off me. Hope I didn't hurt it...

Going out on a boat tomorrow. Leaving at 8:00 am (Monday), back around 4:00 pm (Wednesday). Yay, 3 days of no computer, no cellphone, and hopefully some good diving. Should be awesome. It's about time for an adventure again, just been working the last week or so.

Back to Australia

Yay, back in Australia. The flight was uneventful, I'm now on Magnetic Island (just by Townsville). Going to just chill out for a few days, work, and try to get my cold cured.

Nitrox

Also from a few days ago...

No, not like nitro they use in cars. In nitrox diving, you use air with added oxygen. Normal air is 21% oxygen, today I dove with 32% oxygen. But getting more oxygen is not actually the point. Rather, the goal is to have less nitrogen. You can't go as deep with more oxygen in the air, since you can otherwise get oxygen poisoning. Completely irrelevant in my case, since even at 32% oxygen I can still safely dive to 30 meters which is all I can do anyway. So the point of having less nitrogen is that you can stay down longer at any particular depth without getting the bends.
Also rented a camera today and tried to take some pictures. This is really, really hard underwater. First of, you have much less light so you longer shutter times, meaning you have to hold still to get a good shot. Second, you're floating in water which is moving, with nothing to hold on to. Which makes holding still, well, challenging. I did get a couple of cool shots (and yes, eventually I will post some).


Saw a morray eel on this dive. Bloody long fellow, certainly over a meter.
Also caught a glimpse of dolphins on the way back (from the boat). If dolphins are sighted, everybody is paying attention to that. They even turned around and tried to get closer, and everybody was happy to have seen them at all. Really neat, how people just seem to love dolphins sooo much, even though they can see all the other massive amount of cool life down below.

Night Dive

This is from a few days ago, finally getting around to posting it...

Spent most of the day sleeping and fighting a cold, plus a bit of work. Then went for a night dive around 7:00pm.

The only difference in terms of the diving itself is that you have a torch (flashlight), and that the hand signals change a bit. But the underwater world is certainly different…

For starters, you see true colors all of a sudden. Water absorbs certain colors more quickly then others, so a red tomato looks green at 15 meters. But at night, you have the torch so you get the full color spectrum (or something thereabouts). So that was neat, the whole scene looks different right away.
Then just about all the little reef fish are sleeping. You see a fin stick out of the coral here and there, and that's about it. Really no fish whatsoever swimming around. I did see a cuttlefish from far away, they hunt at night and it was out and about (unlike the one I saw on an earlier dive which was just sitting on the bottom napping during the day).
Also saw little jellyfish (maybe 5-10 cm in diameter), which I'm sure are there in the day too. But since they're just about transparent, you only really see them at night. The shape is straight out of star wars – now I know where the people designing fantasy spaceships get their inspiration from. I'm sure that applies to a lot of movies. So many of the fantastical landscapes and creatures in movies now look awfully familiar.
During the safety stop at 5 meters, we turned the torches off and played with the luminescent algae for a bit. Nifty, all these dots of light in the water.
Another cool thing was that you could look deeper into the coral itself, just the way the light worked. Floating over this massive spiky green thing, and you look down among branches and branches, probably looked a good half meter into the thing and it was still the same.
Starting to get a hold of buoyancy. Basically breath a bit more shallow, not really deep breaths. And then increase/decrease lung volume to go up or down. So if I want to do down, breath out and then shallow with little air in my lungs. Want to go up, breath in a lot and then breath shallow with full lungs. Wheeeeeee. Now I have to practice reducing my air consumption, it's not terrible but not great yet either.

That's all for this dive. I kinda feel like I missed a lot on this one, concentrating on buoyancy and breathing too much. But as that gets better I'll have more time to pay attention to all the cool shit.
From what I've seen here the reefs are treated pretty well. The dive sites themselves have little/no man-made damage. Makes sense, they rely on tourism and diving makes up a lot of that. How many dives shops can you fit on one island? I haven't counted them, but I would guess there are at least a hundred people diving on any given day. One dive trip with Manta Dive has up to 20 ppl., and they do 2-3 dives a day. And that's just one shop of a whole bunch.