Another 9-10 days straight of work...another long weekend. Just the way we like it. This last long weekend, Lindsay and I headed down about an hour south to a town called Alva Beach where we planned to do some more diving.
This was a trip we had been looking forward to for some time. In fact, Aunt Paula had given us this specific dive trip as a wedding present, complete with history, a pirate map, seashell stickers and a picture of the ship we would be exploring. Yes, this would be THE wreck dive on the S.S. Yongala.
For divers in the know, the Yongala is seen as one of the best dives in all of Australia. From the first time Lindsay and I heard this, we were confused how in a country with the Great Barrier Reef, this sunken ship in the middle of nowhere could be so special. Read on and we'll tell you what we learned.
We started out driving 25 minutes south to Bowling Green National Park where we explored Alligator Creek. Between Brisbane and Cairns there are over 10 creeks called Alligator creek. Number of alligators to ever exist in Australia...zero. All crocs actually. Anyway, no crocs or gators in the park, just a bunch of stagnant pools and bush turkeys. We haven't seen it yet, but it sure sounds like this place transforms into something completely different during "The Wet."
After that we just took our time exploring the side roads and beach towns down the coast toward the next major population center of Ayr (population 8,300). We got into Ayr about noon and we were hungry. A few kilometers outside Ayr we had seen a billboard for an Italian deli that claimed to be "The best this side of Milan." Well, if there is one thing we have come to expect while living here in Australia it's when it comes to most non-Australian foods, don't get your hopes up. This is not to say that we haven't had some wonderful meals here because we most certainly have. Its just that everything is "Same, same...but different." This is a term that I first learned in Thailand and can be found throughout all of Asia. Its used when something resembles the correct thing, but upon further exploration it is found to be not quite right.
Example #1: "Miss Sushi" is a restaurant in Townsville. The name of the restaurant says "Sushi". The people working there appear to be of some Asian descent. The order one receives comes in rolls and rice is involved. That is the "Same, same." After getting home you discover that the tuna roll is in fact cooked tuna salad wrapped in rice and another has BBQ chicken in the center. That is the "but different" part. (This is an extreme example, and Lindsay would call this "Different, different....and gross.")
Example #2: Ketchup here (and pasta sauces in general) all look and smell exactly the same but are ever-so-slightly sweeter. A noticeable difference, not bad though like the sushi differences.
Example # 3: The ladyboys of Thailand. If you don't know what this is...google "ladyboy" and "Thailand." Scary.
But I digress. We both had a hankering for an Italian sub and after a bit of driving we found Del Santo's deli, of the aforementioned billboard. With our expectations very low we walked in. WOW. We were both blown away. Imagine walking into a good deli in NYC or Boston or SF. I know its hard to believe, but this place had it all. From capricola to prosciutto to pasta makers to over 20 varieties of imported olive oil. It was amazing. I got to talking with the shop owner and apparently cane farming had brought in huge numbers of Italian immigrants, and they needed somewhere to get traditional foods. This was it. We had a couple of great subs and went on our way.
Small towns in Australia pretty much shut down on the weekends. At the late hour of 2pm, all the shops were closed except for the bottle shop and the pubs. So, after we stopped for photos at the "Big Snake," we headed over to the Queens Hotel for a pint of XXXX, the local brew. It was a warm afternoon and the cold beer hit the spot as we sat on the porch of the hotel and watched the few people still in town pass by. We finished our drinks and decided to walk down the street to the theater and see what was playing. We ended up seeing an Australian film called Charlie and Boots, which was perfect for a warm Saturday afternoon in Ayr. There were many inside Australian jokes, including a stop at the "Big Koala" and a Ned Kelly reference. We were thrilled that we've been faux Aussies long enough to get the jokes.
After the show we picked up an Eagle Brothers pizza and drove the 15K east to the beach town of Alva Beach. This very small and sleepy town has been described as a drinking town with a fishing problem. We ate our pizza on a sand dune overlooking the sea and then looked for a place to sleep for the night. At first we thought we would camp on the dunes, but the wind was intense and we saw many many ATV tracks along the sand indicating it was a hot spot for off-road driving, so we thought better of that. After a bit of searching I convinced Lindsay we would be fine camping in the middle of a public park in the center of town. Under the cover of darkness we set up the tent and got situated in the park. We were lucky that the park's public restroom was not locked so we had somewhere to go.
At this point I am sure that Mary and Rick are second guessing their approval of me. What kind of guy would take their daughter to camp in a public park and use run-down public toilets with no showers? That actually is a good question.
Everything was fine. The ground was soft, the bathrooms were tolerable and we started to fall asleep to the sound of the waves crashing nearby. Until the cars stared to arrive. Over the next 4 hours multiple people pulled their cars into the parking lot of the park and shined their lights around, used the public phone booth, and made lots of noise. Lindsay was nice enough to let me know each time another car would show up by waking me up. She was convinced that either the police or the local hooligans were coming to either arrest/kill/taunt us. Needless to say we did not sleep there the next night.The next day we got up early and went to the dive shop. We signed our papers and got all geared up. We drove out across the dunes to a sandbar and hopped on the boat. The excitement was palpable. As was the disappointment 10 minutes later when the skipper announced that one of the motors was broken and we would all have to go back to the dive shop. Back at the dive shop we had a BBQ lunch and waited until 2:00 for a trip that would never come. We were lucky since we had booked to dive next day as well, not to mention we only live an hour away. No one else in our group was as lucky. Many were travelers and that was their one chance to see the Yongala.
We spent the rest of that day back at the Queens hotel and at the movie theater where we watched a dumb Bruce Willis movie. Afterwords we dined on some incredibly delicious fish 'n' chips and calamari from the Alva Beach Food Shack. That night we moved into the Alva Beach caravan park, which was posh compared to the local park complete with mini-store and swimming pool. All for the reasonable price of $20. Nothing's too good for my Lindsay.
The next morning we went through the same steps as the day before, but this time the boat worked and we were off. 30 minutes later we stopped the boat in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. Finally we were at the Yongala.
Back in the spring of 1911, the S.S. Yongala was heading up the Australian coast from Mackay to Cairns. Unbeknownst to the captain, he and the 121 others on board were headed directly into the path of a cyclone. 5 days later when the ship did not show up in Cairns, the largest search and rescue in Australian history took place, but the ship wasn't found. In 1943 a WWII mine sweeper spotted something that they thought was a coral shoal but it was not investigated further. 14 year later a couple of divers from Townsville finally identified the ship. They found a safe in the wreckage and although the contents had turned to mush, the serial number matched with the company back in England who had made the safe for the Yongala. The Yongala had at last been found.
So why do so many come from so far to dive this spot? Location, location, location. The GBR is about 20-40 miles off shore. Out there at the reef there is a huge collection of both plant and animal life. The area between the reef and the shore, on the other hand, is a virtual barren waste land where there is essentially very little life. There is nothing for the coral to grow on, and no place for the little fish to hide and live. All of a sudden 98 years ago, a surrogate reef arrived and the ocean critters did the rest. The Yongala today represents an oasis in the desert. It attracts all the sea life from miles and miles and concentrates it in one small patch of sea floor. Depending on the dive one can see, sea snakes, whales, sharks, groupers the size of a VW, turtles and literally thousands of species of fish in one spot.
Back on the boat. We got suited up and down we went. Lindsay was doing her deep water training since the ships bottom is at about 28 m (90 or so feet). After her training was done (which took all of 3 minutes), we had two very nice dive. We saw a few turtles, a handful of sea snakes, and all sorts of interesting critters. You could make out windows, the ships rudder and the toilets. Here's the link to pictures:
Ayr/Yongala Photos
After the two dives we were pooped. We all headed back to land and had another BBQ lunch back at the dive shop. Once we were done we got in the car and drove back up to Townsville. Lindsay was so tired she fell asleep at 8:15pm that night.
One last note. The giving of this dive for a wedding gift turns out to be interestingly ironic. Remember that story in the news about a guy who went on his honeymoon to Australia with his new wife and then she died while diving and at first everyone thought is was a terrible accident but then they figured out that this guy was a creep and had asked her to increase her life insurance just weeks prior to the dive and then he ultimately plead guilty to manslaughter? Guess where that happened?
