Dive Review of
Great Escape/Kimberley Escape in
Australia/West Australia, Broome

Micronesia, South East Easia, Pacific, Carribean

Dive Conditions

depth limit 40 m + 1 hour  

[None]  

Overall Rating

Three small atoll islands 17o sea miles off Broome, West Australia were my
this years dive destination. These are Clerke, Imperieuse and Mermaid, the
Rowley Shoals, which we cruised around on board of the Kimberley Escape.
Healthy  reefs, lots of fish life like on the Maldives many years ago.
Untouched by El Ninjo or diver crowds. A good mixture of hard and soft
coral, some walls pinkish or yellow with  an abundance of them. Often drift
dives in more or less strong current, mostly wall dives, some coral garden,
bomies, crevices, gutters, swim throughs some caves. Vis can be everything
between 3o to 15o feet, water temp. 27 degrees Celsius. Highlights for me :
Fuesseliers, hundreds of them dancing  a ballet to a music you can´t
hear, changing directions all together to some unseen signal. A bunch of
sailfish snapper, a beautiful painted fish,  on a strong current channel
drift dive. In 45 m a dark shadow turned out to be my first sunfish on
cleaning station, got close, an exhilarating experience. On a blue water
dive down to 3o m with plastic drinking bottles to attract sharks with by
squeezing them, a noise which makes them curious. Sure enough  a 3 m tiger
shark came close circled us but something scared him away soon. The other
group had 3 hammers. One dive site Cod Hole you find huge potatoe cods =
groupers in size of 1,5 – 2 m coming close to touch, must be used to divers
feeding them. 
This area is fantastic and I always keep asking myself, better to keep
quiet about it or tell others ?
But I guess with the Rowleys the distance and the costs will keep it a
seldom visited place and surely will not turn into a divers nightmare with
too much folk coming.
The boat is good but still not up to live aboard standards. Only  3 share
heads and showers, don´t expect  towels after each dive or made beds.
Dive platform is great giving easy entry and exit. I would have liked  to
see a bit more space for everything. Meals are superb and certainly meet
live aboard standards. Next year they plan to introduce a bigger boat the
Great Escape and are thinking of longer trips to the Rowleys and some
northern islands.
ne] 

Questions?
Send an email to the author of this report

What others have to say about Undercurrent
And get immediate access to ALL 84 dive reviews of Australia
and all other dive destinations immediately!