The two Steves ventured down to Cronulla for a 66-minute 11-metre shore dive at Oak Park. For those unfamiliar with the site, Oak Park is one of several good shore dives in the shire and worth the trip from more distant parts of Sydney. See the links below for what others have said about it. Water temperature was 21C, sea swell below 1.5m and visibility milky at around 6-7m near the entry/exit but deteriorating to around 3-4m further out.
We followed the main wall in a north-easterly direction for about 20 minutes, the highlight of which were the massive schools of Yellowtail Scad, frantically trying to avoid a school of Rainbow Runner on the prowl. We then headed over to the second reef. The two of us having visited the cave on a previous dive, we covered some new territory along the eastern edge of the second reef to check out the sponge gardens and impressive underwater terrain there. The sponge gardens at Oak Park normally put on a vibrant colour show, but the viewing was slightly less impressive this time due to the milky visibility. Nonetheless this dive site has much to recommend it for and we had a highly interesting and relaxing dive. Returning to the exit, we encountered giant Cuttlefish, Stripeys, Old Wives and Pipefish to name a few species.
The obligatory post-dive coffee and chat was at Food Xchange, Caringbah.
Another great Sydney Sub Aqua Club shore dive!
