HMAS Swan Wreck Dive at Dunsborough

Before winter arrives, we decided to proceed with our plan to visit the HMAS Swan wreck at Dunsborough, 3 hours drive south of Perth. The HMAS Swan was a River Class Frigate Destroyer of the Australian Navy. After serving 26 years, it was decommissioned in 1996 and in 1997 it was sunk 2.4km off the South West Coast in 30m of water.

The destroyer HMAS Swan - my first wreck dive!

This being a 300+km road trip, we couldnt possibly rely on our 'fast' and 'furious' non-airconditioned babies to see us there, n therefore we borrowed from the Magna 4 Gang, their bling-bling Mitsubishi Magna, with airconditioning woh...

my turn to take the wheels in the bling-bling Magna

The dive operator Cape Dive, is based in Dunsborough, which means we had to set off at 6am in the morning in order to reach there by 9am. With some difficulty towards the last stage of the drive, we finally made it there, abeit 30 min later than our expected time. Thankfully, the morning's dive had not set off yet, and after paying A$170 (inclusive of all equipment) for the 2 dives , we were on our way to the dive site.

The dive gang outside Cape Dive

As usual, a 10mm wetsuit is a must, although this time round the water was not as cold. Right at the beginning of the dive, we saw a 1.5m creature that we thought was one of the bottom feeding shark the dive master was talkin about earlier, called Wooggogog or something. Till now we still cant confirm whether we were correct, but whatever, as long as its not juz any boring fish rite?

yep its been confirmed by Lawrence, its a kind of shark called spotted wobbegong

...more not so boring shark........

U cant run away from us even when hiding under the wreck

While the visibility wasnt really very good, at least in terms of things to see, n marine life, it was much better than the Rottnest Dive. And as usual, we spent way too much time posing for our cameraman Mr KK but it did take away the boredom when there was nothing to see sometimes.

pose number 1




Pose number 2

unknowingly pose number 3

pose number 4 - the mast behind looks like a skull head in this pic

mast of Swan Wreck

In terms of marine life, other than the thing dat we thought was a shark, there was a huge school of porcupinefish, some filefish, 3 to 4 small rays, most probably black-blotched rays, some batfishes and travellies hiding under the rudder of the ship. In terms of exploring the interior of the wreck, we didnt venture deep into it, as we didnt follow the operator's dive master, and was advised by him that some of the walls of the wreck are old and might juz collaspe.

huge school of porcupinefish




batfish

inside the wreck

I guess this dive would be the last dive i would be doing for now. Any other dive sites are further than this, and as winter approaches, more dive sites would be closed for diving. I'm just glad that at least for this dive, it was much more fun and different from the Rottness Dive. Hopefully i will have more chances to dive in Australia, perhaps Ningaloo Reef or the Great Barrier Reef in future?

Congrats Mr and Mrs Lim

Today, on the 26th of March 2006, one of my good pal will be united for life with his dearest. Hongyu, while i can only send my blessings far away from perth, i do believe dat u will enjoy a lifetime of happiness with your beautiful wife. Congrats Mr and Mrs Lim!

cow-peh n cow-bu - may little calfs appear soon!

first dive in over a year

After almost more than 15 months since my last dive (my last dive was near St John's Island in Singapore in Dec 2004), I finally had the chance to go for a leisure dive in the waters of Rottnest Island in Perth. My friends here are avid divers, with one even being a full fledged diving instructor, so i had no worries knowing that i would be safe with him around! haha



The trip itself was a one day dive trip costing $100 for 2 dives, equipment rental not included. Diving here is definitly much more expensive, but since i'm already here, i might as well give it a go. The operator is Perth Diving Academy, with its dive shop in Fremantle. Unfortunately, on the saturday that we got there for the dive, the operator's vessel, Lionfish IV, broke down. Luckily the dive shop is close to where we stay, and we managed to get slots for the next day dive.

The dive itself wasnt as good as what you would find in tropical waters. Visibility wasnt good, and variety of marine life was pathetic. The underwater current surge was pretty strong for the first dive, u haf to fin pretty hard juz to stay at the same spot. Worst of was the temperature of the water, although i didnt really note its exact temperature, but it was cold enuff for me to curse out loud on both occasions dat i jumped into the water. I was already wearin a 10mm wetsuit (the ones we normally wore were 3mm ones), n if i had being stingy n not rent the operator's wetsuit but wore my pathetic 3mm wetsuit, i might really suffer hypothermia underwater!

fully geared n ready to go see.....

... boring fish and ....

... its a filefish! Thanks baoz!

"V" for "Vendetta" "Very Cold"

The effects of not exercising/living a couch potato lifestyle was evident at the end of my 2nd dive, when i had cramps in my calf on surfacing. Luckily Mr K.K towed me back to the boat, sparing me the agony of tryin to fin back to the boat. Thanks again Saviour!

This should be Mor Cave...

After so long, i still havent forgotten the joy i get from diving. I still remember my very first training dive, n the feeling dat u get when u're in another part of the world, somewhere peaceful n beautiful. Sadly, this dive didnt give me dat kind of feeling, but i will be back for more!

Kings Park

Kings Park is perhaps the most famous of all the parks in perth city, overlooking the Swan River and Perth City itself. It is a popular park to visit for tourists and locals, n besides the great view n variety of flora, it is also a great place to take a peaceful stroll or have a picnic and busk in the great outdoor environment. In other words, it's a perfect cheap place to bring a date! Too bad, my dates for this visit were a couple of guys though..

take fotos muz haf fountain behind, more effect siah

war memorial - Cenotaph

perth city n its beauty

nice sunset, they dun call perth the sunset coast for nothing

beautiful sunset of perth

night view of swan river

Stuff that's different

1. Burger King is called Hungry Jack's here.

Why the name change? Perhaps the Copyright authority or whatever it's called, doesnt want the other burgers to be ruled by a king ?

2. Shoe sizes here are generally bigger

I meant really BIG.

3. You really have to be specific when you mention that you are going to The Church

The Church in Perth City is actually a pub/disco environment. The last i check a couple of weeks back, there wasnt any priest inside, in fact, there wasnt much people inside. Maybe the clubbers are confused on which church they are supposed to go.

(not so) fast n the furious

One of the first things we settled upon touchdown here was finding our car pool gang, and subsequently looking around for 2nd hand cars. As there were 5 of us, and 2nd hand cars arent that expensive here (definitly much much cheaper here than S'pore), we decided to get 2 cars.

Introducing...

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...

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(not so) FAST n the FURIOUS

nope, i didnt name them "Fast" n "Furious" respectively

The light blue (some may say baby blue) car on the left is a '93 (i think) Daihatsu Charade, 1.0 Litre, 2 door coupe, while the other one on the right is a dark blue '92 (again i think it is) Suzuki Swift 1.0 Litre, 2 door coupe. The combined cost per person, including miscellaneous, was roughly $450 per person, which works out to be about slightly over $1.1k each per car. CheEEEeeap ya?

doraemon sticker on the Charade

Both cars have no power steering, which works out fine with me, since my dad's car has none either. But there's no air-conditioning, which is pretty bad on hot summer days. Even with the windows fully wound down, travelling at 80+ km/hr, it can still be a bit warm. Rather than focus on the bad (cant complain too much, $450 for 2 car mah),I have to say these 2 cars are really fuel efficient, n since it's fuel efficient, flooring the accelerator pedal sometimes doesnt seem such a heartache.

There's not much difference between driving here and in singapore since both follow the right-hand drive rule, altough there's no such thing as ERP here. In fact, i find driving here to be less stressful, perhaps due to friendly drivers? Or mabbe driving in their expressways (called freeways here) is much more scenic and thus relaxing?

the car pool gang

my past 2 months here

It's been already more than 2 months here in Perth, and yet me and my coursemates havent been doing much training here yet. All this time, while waiting for the equivalent of a PDL (Provisional Driving License), which we havent got at this moment of time, we cant do much training, with once a week the norm.

So the first month was spend pretty much settling in, shopping around for stuff, doing duties such as kitchen cleaning and typing of daily training programme. In fact I think this 2 months is the most relaxed period of my time, which i can say applies to my colleagues as well. We usually watch movies on our laptops, occasionally i wud play some mahjong. We'll go to Perth city to an area call Northbridge for Pool/Snooker or for some bubble tea. The normal sleeping time for me is at least 1am plus, n most mornings, well, i dun really know how mornin is like most of the time here, except when i need to do duty or do my weekly training. I know really this life is good now, but i also understand that in a few weeks from now(hopefully), things will change, and stress and uncertainty will become part of life.

On a side note, i was doing a quiz here on what country should i live in, and the results it gave me was as such:

Which country should you REALLY be living in?

Australia

G'day Mate! You're a yokker. A true Aussie. You love the beach and barbies, as well as sport and sex. Life couldn't get any simpler, and thats the way it should be. C'mon Aussie, C'mon!

Crap. All this time i want to get back home asap, n it turns out my home should be here.

G'day Mate! Cheers Mate! Wicked! Cool! Go Aussie Go!

so cuuuute till u buay tahan (updated!!)

Since my good fren Wanzzz requested more pics here, especially of koalas, I shall oblige by making this the cuuuutest post ever. Cos it so happens i went to a wildlife park north of perth city recently with my colleagues. This wildlife park houses several Australian animals, such as koalas, dingos, tasmania devils, wombats and kangaroos. Best of all, from what we gathered from the travel brochure, we are even allowed to come into close contact with them, and perhaps even feed them. I had to brace the dangers from the bite of a ferocious dingo and llama to bring u this post, so pls appreciate this post and gimme lots of comments!

nah dont worry abt me, this dingo is just yawning

this white llama however DID try to chew off my shirt

It was quite disappointing when we arrived there though. Most of the animals were fast asleep, or hiding inside a log or somewhere away from the glaring 38 degrees sun. And except for some farm animals and kangaroos, the rest of the wildlife were caged up away from the public. We did managed to come into close contact wif the koalas (The Aussies dun call them Koala bears), although we were not allowed to hold them. We were able to touch them on their backs though, while they were fast asleep. Apparently, the guide told us koalas sleep 18 hrs a day, and we have to be quite lucky to catch them awake.

this wombat probably juz woke up from one of its many naps

sleepin 18 hrs a day is juz...a waste of life

even koalas shun me....

This young kangaroo or Joey, was one of the exception. Sleeping doesnt seem to be her favorite activity here.

so cute!!

come on, admit it. she's cute....

Perhaps the best part of the trip was in the kangaroo feeding enclosure, where we freely mingled with and fed the kangaroos. And there were about 20 plus kangaroos, all sleeping/lying on the grass patch, waiting for curious visitors like us to come feed them their lunch. Really good life for these kangaroos here.

where's our food?!

this roo at least made the effort to stand up n come fwd for its meal

weird sleeping pose, but whatever does it for them...

At the end of the day, it was actually quite a fun trip, being able to see the animals synonymous with Australia. Reminds me of the excitement we all experienced when we were kids visiting the zoo for the first time. Maybe if things doesnt work out here, i should consider workin in the Singapore Zoo ya?

Cessna 172R

The Cessna 172R has a 4 piston engine, driving a 2 blade propeller