Camping Weekend - April 30th to May 1st, 2005

Dave and James in a scooter race

The forecast wasn't looking good for our Dive Safari on the morning of 30th April 2005 - winds of Force 4-5 would mean the sea would be choppy and that we wouldn't be able to get out to Tai Long Wan (a favoured spot). For various reasons we got off to a late start (nothing shall be mentioned here about the Diving Officer who locked his keys in his car, or the person whose pick-up coincided with his arrival home from a big night out - full marks to them both for making it at all!). But as we headed out from Tso Wo Hang it became obvious the forecasters had got it wrong - the sea was flat calm and so the adventure continued ...

Irene and Bruce Reading We motored out to Tai Long Wan where we stayed at Tsim Chau for two dives. Whilst Dave and James buddied up with their scooters and zipped around all over the place, those who preferred a bit of peace and quiet and a more sedate pace started on the cakes and took it easy.
Lovely coral around Tsim Chau
The viz was pretty reasonable, at around 10 metres (which is also the average maximum depth in this area) and we saw quite a lot of critters, including two scorpionfish, plenty of feisty anemonefish, a threadsail (I think!) filefish, a large cuttlefish (who had already signalled his presence by firing out thin jets of black ink so we knew he was around somewhere!) lots of cowrie, a tiny brown-spotted moray and a spotted puffer.

We also saw a good variety of coral at this site. Then we ate more cake.

James Tongs Carmen cooking up a storm At around 4 o'clock it was time to head into the beach and set up camp. On these trips, we usually have the beach to ourselves, but this time a few others had got there first! There was still plenty of space though and, before long, Dave had rigged up a canopy in case the rain came and we'd got a great BBQ going.

After a few glasses of wine, beer and bacardi we were all chilling round the fire ...
Jo, Amanda, Bruce and Irene chill out Our camp fire

[ --- Zzzz... --- ]

Last dive on the dollos Next morning, Mr Chan appeared bright and early to pick us up in his tender and we met up with Andrew and Carolyn (and little Sophia - our youngest member) who'd sailed out on their own boat (how the other half live, eh?).
Sophia checks the kit
Another dive around Tsim Chau (this time in and amongst the kelp forest where we spotted some lovely butterflyfish) before heading off to High Island Reservoir Dam where we dived the huge dollos (you can see them behind me in this picture). The viz was again fair, at around 7-8 metres but it was even better in the shallows towards the end. A perfect end was the incredible school of brown barracuda all around us. Really, there were literally hundreds!! (well, I counted to at least sixty before giving up). More cake on the boat on the way home meant we arrived with our full calorie quotient!

Jo Webb