March 2014 on the Great Barrier Reef

Find Out How
Captain Trevor Jackson

Here is a little project for ya! Get on Google Earth. Are you doing that? Okay now fly yourself up to North Qld, find Cape Melville and keep going north till you hit Tijou Reef. Go to the top end of Tijou Reef and zoom in…there’s something funny there isn’t there? Notice what looks like some giant creature has taken a bite out of the reef just a wee bit down on the west face? Yeh …intriguing isn’t it? We thought so, so we went for a look in real life and what we found blew our minds. I’ve been diving this Great Barrier Reef its entire length and breadth for 30 plus years and I’ve never seen nor heard of anything that resembles this.

When we got back I collared Mike In his office and simply stated …THIS IS THE BEST REEF DIVE EVER……AND I DO MEAN……. EVER!!!!
So what is it that you are looking at? Well from the ground it could be described thusly: Imagine a creature (I mentioned a creature earlier I’m sure) has taken a bite out of the edge of a reef, a bite about 300 metres wide – just big enough to tie a big fat dive boat in the middle of. Nothing too remarkable about that so far…but imagine now that the walls of this bite are infinitely steep and unfathomable, right up to the apex of the bite…and I do mean unfathomable.

I put on a CCR and went as deep as I dare and couldn’t see the wall even beginning to taper, it was sheer , epic and simply awesome. The two reef edges that feed into this little bay offer two of the best drift dives imaginable, both ending when the current disappears as you arrive at the ‘bite mark’. The terrain changes every 50 metres, the biodiversity changes every 50 metres, your sense of awe will notch up every 50 metres. We’ve named the bite mark, the Catcher’s Mitt, as it does exactly that, catches the drift divers and envelopes them in towards the boat.
Want to see it for yourself? Then get out of Google Earth and get on to mikeball.com and find out how.

Rogues Gallery