Rowley Shoals Diving & Snorkelling (10 nights)

Please note that this is a typical itinerary.

Day One

Board your luxury vessel around 5pm for welcome drinks, canapés and a cruise and safety briefing. We will disembark from the Jetty and have dinner while we steam towards the Rowley Shoals. The Rowley Shoals are 300km west of Broome so you will have all night to settle into your cabin and familiarise yourself with the boat and fellow passengers.

Day Two

Arrive at Clerk Reef at approximately 8am. We will make our way through the narrow channel to anchor up inside the lagoon. Here we will organise our dive gear and have a dive briefing outlining procedures and standards. The dive master will then brief you on the first dive "The Blue Lagoon". This is a very easy dive to familiarise everyone with the new environment and their equipment. Average depth is 12m gradually sloping down white sandy edge dotted with coral bommies to 30M. This dive is always crystal blue and has colourful coral, small caves with sandy bottoms, swim throughs and a multitude of tropical fish species.

The second dive will be a drift dive in through "The Channel" to Clerke Reef. This is a favourite dive site. The mother boat will drop you off the on the outside of the lagoon to drift in through the narrow channel to meet the boat anchored just inside the entrance. Start the dive at the edge of the reef which walls down to 50 metres then gently slopes off into the abyss. Entry through the channel is at 12m. The Channel is cut through beautiful colourful coral and you will see plenty of reef fish, schooling fish species in the current, the odd barracuda and small reef sharks.

We will have lunch inside the lagoon where the dive ends. There is opportunity for some great snorkelling along shallow bommie edges after lunch in what we call "The Aquarium." We shall head outside the lagoon for an afternoon drift dive along the edge of the atoll.

There is always a chance of picking up a Sailfish on the way back to the entrance to the lagoon. As the entrance is treacherously scattered with bommies it has to be navigated before sunset.

The crew will get the boat positioned for a comfortable night and then light and tide permitting we will negotiate the exhilarating channel drifts. These narrow cracks in the reef are wide enough for the dinghies to drive down and create a feeling for the snorkellers of flying underwater as you cruise along at 6 knots to other outside of the lagoon. Average depth is 7m. Back to the boat for a glorious dinner and some relaxation.

Day Three

Set off to dive the "Western Wall" before 7.30am. This coral encrusted wall drops off to 55m and has a rubbly bottom that slopes off steeply into the 'never never'! The first half of the dive is deep where hopefully we will encounter some pelagic species such as tuna or sailfish, then the last half is spent shallower near the top of the reef exploring cracks and caves dotted with tropical fish and shells.

Back on the boat for a cooked breakfast while we head down to "Jimmy goes to China " (a story you will hear on board). This is a 40M wall encrusted with large gorgonians and black corals. We often see pelagic fish life and larger sharks. Top of the reef is 10-20m and an ocean scape of corals and tropical fish. A delicious lunch follows.

Cruise around to dive "Tiger Alley". This dive will be a drift along the outer edge where it is common to see tuna, mackerel, sharks and large cod. The last dive will be chosen heading back around to the channel entrance. The late afternoon and sunset can be spent on the sandy beach to see the rare red-tailed tropic birds that nest on Bedwell Island . Wind permitting we may have a BBQ on the beach and a game of beach Cricket or we may do a night dive at the anchorage area.

Day Four

The first dive will be before breakfast at "The Crevasse". This is the same area and coral formation as the Western Wall. Once back on board we will have a cooked breakfast and head into position to do the drift in to the channel again.

Once we are all onboard there is the opportunity to a bit of reef fishing for the evening dinner, or snorkelling or skurfing. Or some lazy sun baking or camera maintenance! The afternoon will probably be an exploratory dive and them we will head back inside the lagoon a bit earlier to set up a night dive on the outer edge of the lagoon. Set off for the night dive as soon as the sun goes down and we will be back just before 8pm for dinner.

Day Five

First dive will be before 8 am somewhere on the western wall. Divers will come back to the mother boat for breakfast and we will cruise over to Imperieuse Reef. This cruise will take about 2 hours and is the southern most atoll comprising the Rowley Shoals. We were unable to manoeuvre the boat inside the atoll so our time is spent on the outer perimeters. We will plan our visit to this reef making sure the weather conditions are favourable as there will be no protection from any weather should it arise. If we have perfect conditions, we can stay here for the night- if we don't, we will fit as many dives as we can before we head back to Clerke Reef for the evening. We have to leave at approximately 3pm so we can still navigate the treacherous channel during daylight.

Day Six

All things going well we will still be at Imperieuse Reef and can spend the day exploring. Not many boats visit this atoll as there is no guaranteed protection from weather in the evening - so it will be just as exciting for the crew as it is for the guests.

Day Seven

First dive will be before 8am somewhere on the Western Wall. Divers will come back to the Mother boat for breakfast and we will cruise over to Mermaid Reef. This cruise will take 2 hours. On arrival we will dive "V in the all". This is a big V shaped bommie jutting out of the reef edge, Drop down to 30m then make your way up and around the V, which has an average depth of 18m. There are an abundance of shells in this area.

Last dive before heading into the lagoon will be "The Cod Hole". This is about 18m deep with lots of bommies and a few cracks. As the name suggests there are three large resident Potato Cod that live here and they get up close and personal! The boat will head in on sunset to anchor up for the evening. There is no sandy beach on this atoll so we stay on the boat most sunsets or use the dinghies to go skurfing. Mermaid Reef is a National Marine Reserve so there is no fishing allowed at all.

We will organise a night dive on most evenings if you wish.

Day Eight

We will make an early start to today on the most spectacular wall of the Rowley Shoals - simply known as "The Wall". This will be a drift dive. This wall is sheer vertical from the reef that breaks the waters surface down to 110m. It then slopes off sharply with a rubbly bottom - not that you will see it! This is a great area to spot large sharks - and the rare Greater Hammerhead! Quite a few turtles are seen here and beautiful corals and soft corals.

Head down to "The Caves" for a dive before lunch. This seascape is very different with the wall sloping down quite steeply to 50m. The caves are quite large and twist up to the top of the reef (breaking to the surface). Great area to spot sleeping turtles and unusual shells.

After lunch we will head sown the reef edge to a spot we call "The Net". The name came from both the facts that is a complex dive to navigate and the other was on a small old piece of trawling net found on one corner of the reef. It is an intricate web of reef, bommies, overhanging caves and cracks. The dive goes down to 40m on the outer edge and the average depth of the net dive is 18m. Stunning coral formations and tropical fish species to be found here.

The last dive will be a drift in the Channel. Another exhilarating drift past sharks, feeding fish, the big potato cod and colourful bommies. A night dive will be organised if time permits.

Day Nine

Another early morning start as we head around to the western side of the reef to explore the hidden seascapes. This side of the atoll is exposed to the westerly swell so doesn't get explored as much as eastern side of the atoll. It was here in 1800's that the wooden ship the Lively ran aground. All that is left is a coral encrusted anchor - quite difficult to locate it so well encrusted.

Swell permitting we will make a couple of dives on this side to see what diversity there is on both sides of the atoll.

In the afternoon we will head back around to the channel for a dive before we head into the lagoon for the evening.

Day Ten

We are always asked to dive "The Wall" again, so we will do this before breakfast. After brekkie we will usually do the drift in the channel again as this is another favourite, dependant upon tides.

After lunch we will do a "Deep Blue" dive on an area about 100m off the outer reef edge. We locate this dive on the edge of a 70m-drop off into oblivion. You will not see the bottom. It is here we have found schools of scalloped hammerhead sharks. As you hang in the blue (quite an eerie experience) the sharks will materialise to look at us! We go in groups of no more than four divers and this seems to arouse their curiosity. We are successful about 80% of the time in seeing these hammers. You can be assured of experiencing quite a few silvertip sharks in the meantime. Always good to keep an eye on these erratic creatures. We have seen the odd Tiger shark and sailfish come in for a look as well!

Then we have to head into the lagoon to pick up the tenders and get ready dor the all night cruise back to Broome. The last dive will be a twilight dive at the "Cod Hole".

Day Eleven

Arrive at Broome Jetty at 7am. Disembark at 8am, taxis will transfer you to the airport or to your accommodation.