Forster Trip Debrief - with Heidi.

The van pulls away from the shop and begins its journey towards Forster. The group is very aware that it is going to be a long trip, so start the ‘are we there yet’ chants nice and early just to test the water. First stop Pymble pub and the drinking begins, as do the hunger complaints.

Arriving in Forster, Michael’s great navigational skills get us to the house. Left and right turns can get confusing. Beds are found and people crawl into them after the long journey. A few people rocked up a little later and thank goodness for Daniels fantastic ears, they are let in and spared the thought of sleeping in their cars.

Great weather awaits us for our first two dives on the Saturday. We hear rumors that the boat is heading towards "The Pinnacles" and everyone gets prepared for a very deep dive.  As the group descended down the anchor line, a few screwed up noses showed that nobody was impressed by the visibility. Once we hit the 20m mark however, it became a lot clearer and eye’s focused on what was below. Massive Wobbegong’s, big schools of jewfish and of course some blue gropers all greeted us. Back at the surface everyone was impressed by the dive. Dive two took us to "Latitude rock" where grey nurse sharks greeted us from their caves. Everyone delighted to see these magnificent creatures.

Mexican for dinner with some big sombreros to protect some wet little heads. Whose idea was it to sit outside anyway? A few oyster shots later and the crew went on a mission to find a place to ‘check out the scene’. None found so after a quick bottle shop stop and chocolate run everyone was back at the house watching Rob’s footage of the day and chilling out before turning in for the exciting day ahead.

It’s an early start Sunday for the drive to seal rocks, the weather is crap but the spirits are high. The road to the boat was not the greatest and in my defense it would put anyone in a bad mood, unless of course you had an x-trail! A short swim out to the boat and off we went to discover what seal rocks was all about. SHARKS!!! How many? HEAPS! Everyone had the biggest smiles on their faces, not because of Ron’s wetsuit story, but because of the large amount of sharks just witnessed.

The night consisted of a fair few pizza’s, a lot of beer, some more great footage (thanks Rob), and a deck of cards to determine who would be getting the next round of beer.

Australia day brings about better weather and another dive at latitude rock. Every swim through contained massive wobbegong sharks so once again the group was very impressed. Pineapple fish, octopus, and Peter holding tradition by going up first ended our dives at Forster.

Gear washed, Van packed and the trip back to Sydney begins. Thank you to everyone on the Forster trip for such an enjoyable Australia day weekend. Great laughs, Great diving and Great people who could ask for more!

With more trips coming up I’m sure we will all get away again. Half the crew is heading down to Eden for the Easter weekend and some are arranging a trip to Montague Island to dive with the SEALS! All attitude aside I must say you guys were fun to get away with.