In our case, we had time to ponder several closer geologic and natural wonders while making our way around the boardwalks bordering the main event geyser during our twenty-minute layover.
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Even though I’m poking a little fun at it, except for the driving rain, really the wait was worth it, allowing us to take in the amazing diversity in small areas – if you ignore the umbrellas and raincoats littering the horizon.
And before we know it, our twenty minute delay is over and we can hurry up and wait again while Old Faithful clears her throat and starts the show.
I find it pays to swim back into the shallow part of the lagoon and out of harm’s way; this also prevents a lot of unnecessary verbal abuse from the trip boat skippers. Always fly the A’ flag too, or expect the verbal abuse. At the southeast corner of Brada, the seals often lounge around a large flat rock called The Hopper. Here, the walls of the submerged reef are nearly sheer, with wide cracks running all the way down to the bottom at 20 metres. Just to the south of this point there are some interesting deep canyons which meander all the way back into the Brada and they have plenty of interesting marine life in them. To the north, the steep rock face, over a distance of about 50 metres, is riddled with crevices and makes a very picturesque dive. Visibility is often excellent during the summer months, but the area is prone to a swell from the open sea. Depths away from the base of the reef drop away rapidly to 25 metres plus and there is a strong tidal run. On the flood tide, this stretch of water from the end of Brada and along the Longstone reef wall for about 200 metres is caught in a type of backwash, because the surface current runs north instead of south before turning out to sea. This site is also very popular with the trip boats because of the proximity of the large grey seal colony.
