Ashmore Reef... you ravishing BEAST!
Mike Ball's first Ashmore Reef dive: Innovative scouting, world-class sites, and anticipation of future explorations.
Ashmore Reef ...you ravishing BEAST!
Let’s just talk about the heat for a minute. The HEAT, specifically the heat at Thursday Island the day we left for Ashmore Reef. It was like a laser beam to the skull. Luckily our air conditioning was humming like a Swiss clock. I looked at the weather forecast and we could expect more of the same. We would end up further north than Spoilsport had ever been, so still waters, hot days, and the sound of distant jungle drums were all on the agenda. We were on the eve of another ‘seek and ye shall find’ type of trip. It’d been sold out for over a year, and why not? These days there are limited opportunities to “boldly go where no man has been before”. This was one of them.
We did a shakedown day at Raine Island…Tiger and turtle territory, then it was north overnight to who knows what. We had a couple of marks given to us by someone who’d passed through 20 years before. I went through them on the way north. But after a while I thought, ‘We’re not here to follow old footsteps, we’re carving our own path.’
I chucked the old marks in the bin. It was the best move ever!
Satellite imagery, what a tool. First, we figured out what looked good from outer space. Then once we got in the general vicinity, the onboard drone was launched. The combination of a couple of old sea dogs staring out the window, and the young pups flying a live feed camera, was a roaring success. It was dive site hunting 21st-century style, and it sure cut down on the fin work.
As each dive was completed, I waited for a report. Good? Bad? Awesome?
In all, we hit 9 sites over three days. 6 of them were firmly in the awesome category, and by awesome I mean World Class. Bottomless walls, rampaging sharks, and water clearer than the tropical air. Everyone wanted to just …stay.
We had hardly scratched the surface…but time had caught up with us. South to Great Detached Reef, then a final day at the wreck of the RMS Quetta…Australia’s greatest shipwreck. As the sun set on Cape York, we looked back to the east and wondered in amazement. What would we find next year? Ashmore Reef ..you ravishing BEAST! We all agreed it would take 5 or 10 years before we would really know the place, in the meantime…… it's ours, and yours ..to discover.
Contact resv@mikeball.com for upcoming Expeditions.
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