We first stopped off at the statue to get a couple of selfies as Chef Jen was offering a bucket of beer to anyone who provided a photo of their buddy and themselves high-fiving the Guardian. With that taken care off we proceeded out to the main wall for a mooch around and see what was what.
Large shoals of triggerfish, fusiliers, snappers, grunts and angel fish were the order of the morning providing a welcome entertainment for us as they went about their Sunday morning routine ( picking up the papers, washing the car, that sort of stuff ).
We spent a little time checking out the deep blue to see if we had any unexpected guests come to visit but not today as it turns out. With our little personnel escort of snappers and groupers, we headed back through the cut and navigated for home.
With a quick swap over to macro we jumped back in and scoured the mini-wall and hard pan for all the small hidden treasures waiting to be found. Like this lovely little roughhead blenny hiding in amongst the rocks.
Or the secretary blennies hanging out in the brain corals.
But i think I struck gold this morning when I spent some time at the six metres mark in the hard pan and found a tiny little shape moving in and out of it's hole. After ten minutes of coaxing and patience I was finally rewarded with a juvenile swollen claw mantis shrimp. Skittish little fellow but it was worth the wait. Even got a little video footage as well.
During the safety stop, we did think there was an early eclipse going on topside as the sun was blotted out, but after looking up it was just a herd of about twelve tourists swimming out at the surface. Amazing how much natural light they can block out...........
But of course a dive wouldn't be a dive without finding some nudibranchs at the end of the dive like this juvenile tritonia hamnerorum on a sea fan. Another good days diving.
P.S. Almost forgot the obligatory post dive snack, this time spicy BBQ beef pizza lovingly prepared by Chef Jen as always.
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