March 2018 on the Great Barrier Reef
Get on Board
Captain Trevor Jackson
Consider for a moment all the things that would make a dive destination great. It’d need to have spectacular marine life, amazing geography and crystal-clear water. Be remote enough to have few visitors but, with the right planning, be accessible. A wreck or two wouldn’t go astray. Oh, and throw in a couple of mind-numbing drop-offs to round the whole package off – I’m not talking about sedate little 40 metre drop-offs here, I mean serious ones – there’s nothing like hovering out off a wall in 1500 metres to remind you you’re alive!!! Chuck in a drift dive, some nice swim throughs and an extra dollop of big shark action for good measure. Yep that would just about do it for me. But where to find it? The answer to that is simple: Bougainville Reef.
Australia may have ended up a French-speaking nation had the undersea mountain now known as Bougainville reef not halted the progress of famed maritime explorer Louis-Antoine Bougainville on June 5th 1768. Despite suspecting that the fabled Great Southern Land lay just 100 miles west of the reef, the poor state of his ships, and the weariness of his crews forced him to turn north and head for home. For divers however, his discovery is becoming one of the must-see destinations in this part of the world for a very good reason; in terms of a dive destination, it literally, has got the lot.
Wrecks: there are two giant iron ships perched on the eastern side of the reef which marks either end of one the most spectacular drift dives you will ever do.
Walls: Steeper and deeper. They defy belief while you defy gravity. The northern and western faces are dead vertical and the visibility is so good you will sprout wings and fly.
Remote Shark Action: Hammerheads, Silver Tips and Marbled Rays that know no fear. With every turn of the head something new and huge.
Bougainville Reef really is the mother of all dive sites. It’s got a heaped spoonful of everything and never fails to offer something new with every visit. As I write this article we’re steaming home after an unforgettable 7-day foray that encompassed the Bougainville Reef, the mighty Osprey Reef and the photogenic Ribbon Reefs. If that sounds like the kind of trip that might satisfy the kind of diver you are, then it’s time to get on board.
