After being in Cairns for the last few months, it was time to get on the road again and with my thoughts frequently returning to the beauty of the Keppel Islands, it was only fitting that this was my first trip of the year! I just knew I had to get back and continue to explore. With the weather being the best it had been in months, it was the perfect time to visit and hopefully dive some places that I had missed out on during my last trip.
With most of my trip being glass out weather, or with the wind coming from the not so usual direction, we managed to get to a lot of the sites that are otherwise inaccessible.
The first few dives took us back to Man and Wife, but the other side where the reef dropped down to 20 metres, right into a small valley with giant plate corals, easily reaching 7 metres across everywhere you turned. With fish covering every square inch of the site, turtles, nudibranchs and even moray eels, it was a beautifully healthy and diverse reef.
The next day turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip, a visit to the Peninsula and we were lucky enough to visit twice in my trip this time. This site is an untouched paradise with a coral wall from 4 metres down to 18 and covered in the most stunning coral you can imagine. There was so much to take in that I only managed to swim 50 metres away from the boat in the whole dive! The site is also macro heaven with nudibranchs and dragonettes in every nook and cranny.
The next few days were filled with trips to Coconut Point, Wreck Beach, Bald Rock and the Look Out, as well as returning to an old favourite at Man and Wife. With sleepy epaulette sharks, whales singing in the distance and crayfish looking out at me, the Keppel Islands once again lived up to all expectations.
Here’s to the staff at Keppel Dive for a most amazing week and for looking after me so well. Rest assured I will be back again but SHHH! Don’t tell anyone else! It really must be one of the diamonds of the Great Barrier Reef.
