Dive Site Series #3: Photographer’s Reef
The cache, a small camo-taped tablet pot, is hidden along the boardwalk giving access to this scenic area populated by numerous entertaining and amusing black and white birds.
The biggest challenge in retrieving and replacing the cache will be muggles who will be around during most daylight hours. So please keep a good look-out and take care to use suitable stealth tactics (eg. camera/binoculars/adjusting footware, etc) in undertaking your activities so that the cache is not compromised and muggled.
To access the cache:
Park at or near S 34 11.905 E 18 27.233in the cark park at the eastern entrance to Boulders Penguin Colony which is <30m from the cache location. If this is full, you may be able to find space along Links Crescent starting at S 34 11.932 E 18 27.209. Then make your way to the small gate at the northern end of Burghers’ Walk at S 34 11.910 E 18 27.239. Follow the boardwalk for only a few metres to the cache location.
The cache was placed in recognition of AndyT1's cache GC2T9RQ Photographers Reef which was archived on 19/12/16 after 201 finds and 4 FPs. It was the most popular cache of a memorable and notably well-prepared 14-cache series published simultaneously on 24/12/2011 - to the great excitement of local cachers who in response feverishly assembled a pre-dawn FTF mission! The mission was only partially successful with 3 FTFs - a certain early bird CapeCCR having nabbed the other 11 some few minutes before!
The original series was not numbered and the current numbering is based on the sequence of caches running north to south. As at March 2018, 7 of the original 14 caches have been archived and are targeted for replacement at nearby new locations. Thanks are due to AndyT1 for kindly agreeing to the use of his excellent original cache descriptions, which described the dive sites and featured local 'critters', as reference material in preparing the new cache descriptions.
The key resource material for divers wishing to dive these sites is the excellent Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay which gives thorough and comprehensive general information and links to specific information for most of the numerous individual dive sites covered. The web-site is a mine of information on the various underwater aspects of the peninsula and bay and is well worth a read even by non-divers (such as myself).
Dive Site Description
The dive site is a small and compact inshore rocky reef located at S 34° 11.839 E 018° 27.434 some 270m offshore and consists of a drowned granite tor (like the
above water Castle Rock peninsula a little to the south) at a depth which allows long dive times without decompression. It has a rugged relief and interesting topographical features including several small caverns and swim-throughs, and a diverse ecology. As the name implies, it is a good site for invertebrate photography. It is near enough to shore and convenient parking for a fit diver to visit from a choice of shore entries, and there are several other small isolated reefs in the vicinity, making the area very suitable for navigation exercises.
Maximum depth is about 13m (14m at high tide) and the top of the reef is at about 3m. Large rounded granite corestones rise almost vertically from the flat sand bottom. There are narrow and wide crevices, some from 5m below the surface down to the full depth. There is also a small swim-through cavern at the south west side at the bottom, and another lower one slightly further to the north, also on the west side.
The reef is usually accessed as a boat dive about 4km from Miller’s Point slipway but it can also be dived as a shore entry from North Windmill Beach or a gully south of the parking area at Penguin Point.
The marine life is typical of the area. The reef is heavily encrusted with Common feather stars, Red bait, Red-chested and Mauve sea cucumbers, false corals and encrusting sponges. Areas with dense populations of brachiopods (lamp shells) can be found in some of the deep crevices. Kelp grows on the upper parts of the reef, but it does not reach the surface and is only visible from the surface when you are over the reef. There is a large variety of invertebrates but usually not many big fish.
Exceptionally large lobster may be found in some of the crevices in the caverns - they are protected, as this site is in a no-take zone.
Also commonly seen in the crevices and exhibiting a certain skill at remaining just out of photographic range, are small numbers of White seacatfish (Galeichthys feliceps). Very occasionally, the males can be seen mouth brooding marble-sized orange transparent eggs.
Sometimes there may be huge numbers of Red-chested sea cucumbers covering parts of the reef. It seems that the breeding season for these animals is around August,
when mind-boggling numbers of tiny juveniles appear at much the same time on many reefs, and coat them with an almost continuous layer of millimetre scale sea cucumbers of a pale pinkish orange. These grow rapidly and by the end of September are near full size at about 2 to 4cm, and make large areas bright red. At times they are so densely packed that there is no space between them.
For comprehensive information on the Reef see here.
Featured Critter: Two-eyed Blenny (Chalaroderma ocellata)
This fish occurs on both sides of the Cape Peninsula, but is most commonly seen in False Bay. They are found in water 5m to over 30m deep - usually in rocky reefs with crevices. Typically, they are seen with their heads poking out of their rocks. The distinguishing feature is the second ‘eye’ (ocellate spot) on the gill plate behind the eye. The male and female have different size tentacles above the eyes - those of the male being much longer. It is skittish and quickly disappears when approached.
See here for more information on, and photos of, this fish.
See here for a series of short videos of diving at the Reef