South Solitary Island – Drift Dive

Probably my favourite kind of dive, as you get to see so many different areas in the one dive – a bit like watching landscape from a speeding train, or home movies on fast forward.  Here is a one minute vignette of some of what we saw on a single drift dive.

Moving beyond Cleaner Station and swinging wide around North Boulder we encounter a couple of different Butterflyfish: Gunther’s on the left, and a Citron on the right

And a Stars and Strips toadfish trying desperately to avoid us flying along in the current.

Next a couple of different turtles each with their different strokes: Hawksbill doing freestyle

and a Loggerhead doing butterfly stroke.

I was impressed at the number of reef fish on the way that you might expect to have to go further north to see.

Nemo …

and Dory!

… and the imaginatively named “Oval Spot Butterflyfish.

Ending the drift in the vicinity of Buchanan’s Wall you have to look closely to see these two Red Rockcod.

Another very well camouflaged fish: this one apparently both spotted and ornate, but perfectly in tune with the terrain its of its immediate surroundings.