It was another weekend with rough seas but the seas had settled enough to make The Monument a good choice. The Leap and The Steps were diveable, just, but the exit at The Steps would have been messy.
I walked in at the bay around the corner from the flagpoles and descended to the sponge garden. Despite the rough seas the visibility was at least 5 metres and extending to 10 metres in places. There was a lot of particulate matter in the water but I could easily see the sand from the sponge garden.
I headed south east along the top of the reef, up the slope and over the wall to the area where "Honey" and the other pot-bellied seahorses used to be. I checked around that whole area looking at the sponges for seahorses but found none.
I came back along the sand line and the wall, again looking for seahorses and anglers. At the end of the wall I came up over the reef and followed the reef along checking out all the sponge covered boulders. At around 20 metres past split rock I found "Oliver", the orange form undescribed angler. I am amazed how easy they can be to spot at times despite their excellent camouflage. This angler was upside-down in the side of a rock and I spotted it from 5 metres away.
I followed the reef all the way to the corner, swimming passed the two bommies. It was a lot colder on the corner and for the rest of the dive. Once around the corner I followed the base of the wall until the rocks on the sand/mud thinned out. I then swam up the wall and along the top of the wall until I came to the break in the kelp and followed the shallow wall along towards the beach. When the wall ended I swam south over the sand and exited on the rocks next to the beach to the west of the flag poles. |
