The
Island
We went to the island of
Huvahendoo, otherwise known as Lily Beach for 2 weeks on 13th
March. It’s a sandbank covered in palm trees, villas, a huge
restaurant and bar and a pool with a coffee shop and bar that
provides daily snacks. One friendly named barman will usually serve
you throughout your holiday and they have a marvellous memory for
remembering your choice of drink. The drinks are very generous
measures. I needed 1 glass of gin and tonic and a separate glass of
tonic. Unfortunately for my husband he had to drink gin and tonic,
as they only had lager and he’s a real ale freak. It’s an “all
inclusive” island, and although the very good food caters for all
tastes, including a full English Breakfast, the clientele are mostly
Germans. There are about 80 villas. Best time to go is between
January and April. They operate a no shoes policy, which was
difficult to grasp before we went but you really do only need
sandals, flip flops or nothing on your feet, even in the evenings.
The carpets are sand !! Dress code is casual, shorts and a light
shirt or t-shirt but I did wear a light dress some evenings. It’s
very hot – up to 38° in the day and 28° at night. All villas are
roomy, clean, have air-con and a ceiling fan. Bathrooms are
open-air, but secluded. I wouldn’t bother paying extra for the water
bungalows unless you want to watch TV. Rooms are cleaned every day
and fresh sheets put on the bed. Your room boy will occasionally
decorate the bed with flowers, and is terribly polite. Tip at the
end of the holiday.
Snorkelling and Diving
There is a breakwater split
into sections around the island, mainly to keep the beaches there.
The Tsunami hadn’t really had any effect apart from some of the
locals dredging sand to replace what was lost. The beauty of the
breakwater is that the water is warmer and safer inside than out,
say 31° and very little current, but then the water temperature
outside it is about 29°. The snorkelling is a must and is
fantastic, and gives you a good idea of the coral surrounding the
island before you dive it. Being fairly new to underwater
photography it pays to take as many pictures as possible. My
underwater Sea & Sea camera takes video as well, although I wasn’t
really confident to do this until the last day whilst snorkelling.
There are feasts of tropical fish everywhere, inside the breakwater
and out. Inside there are usually 3 or 4 big balls of
sardine-looking sprat types of fish, I thought at first it was rocks
under the waist-deep water until it started moving. Outside the
breakwater there is either a fast or a slow current. You can dive
the reef, best on the slow current. Just arrange the previous day
for your nitrox and A-clamp fitting if required, find a buddy and
get in the water. You can dive this as many times as you like.
Maximum depth is an ideal 20m, and you start your ascent when you
see the permanently moored boat on the second pier. A yellow buoy
indicates to surface, where you can see the turtle farm. There are
also turtles outside the farm and in the water with you, which makes
an ideal photo shoot. The coral is growing back since El Nino, I’m
glad to report.
Diving from the boat (a
Dhoni) is very easy. You carry nothing except your computer, camera
and sun tan lotion. The day before you put your name on the list
outside the dive centre, tick the nitrox and A-clamp box and your
basket number allocated on arrival. By the time you join the boat
10 minutes before departure the next day all your kit and the
cylinders are already on board, you just put it together and relax.
They have their own nitrox analysers. You don’t even take the
cylinder out of the holder to kit up on the bench; the boys on the
boat do it for you. NB: take a DSMB with you. I have a holiday
one, which is a Halcyon Spool and buoy where the buoy inflates from
the feeder hose. I have 2 feeder hoses; as if I use my single kit
set up in the UK it doubles as a drysuit hose. The reason for this
is that when you surface you can be quite a long way from the boat.
I didn’t have a problem on any of my 10 dives, so didn’t need it,
but I take it wherever I go.
The dive sites can be as
short as a 10 minute boat ride to anything up to 2 ½ hours, which is
the Manta Ray trip. I did this twice. Lunch on board, which is
substantial, is included. Not only do you virtually guarantee to
see Mantas, even whilst snorkelling in the surface interval, you see
eagle rays, turtles, 3 types of shark as well as all the shoals of
colourful fish. All at between 10-15m. The dive is worth the $49
DVD, we were especially lucky to get 3 mantas all swirling overhead
and between us all. Magnificent creatures. It appears they are
intrigued with the diver’s air bubbles. Every dive even if you do it
more than once is meticulously planned. I requested I only buddy
people who are not heavy on air, so that was usually the instructor,
although I dived with Peter from Derbyshire and Gerhart from
Germany, who’d done over 60 dives to my 170+. I was usually the
last one up, especially on the Manta trip.
Other sites are guaranteed to take your breath
away, and can be a huge adrenalin rush because some of the currents
are quite strong. I would not recommend these dives for novices, as
even I was worried about being separated from the group. The dive
centre lists all the dives for the next day, and gives an indication
of whether they are for everyone, easy, or for the advanced. As
usual, you just put your name down and tick the boxes. What is
mandatory on your first dive is a full mask clearance and buddy
breathing from the instructor. It was planned on the safety stop on
the first dive. This proved to be a difficult task, mainly because
my buddy was low on air and had to breath the instructor’s AAS,
whilst whizzing along at what seemed to be 100 miles an hour in the
current, whilst I took my mask off and replaced it. Buddy Peter
then used his own air whilst I used the AAS from the instructor,
then Peter had it again. I still had 120 bar even when we
surfaced. That was quite a rollercoaster dive !
The
Tourists
We were placed on a table in
the restaurant with a couple, Les and Anne from Hull whom we have
become good friends with. You are allocated the table and that is
your table for the entire 2 weeks (this way you only tip one
waiter). They kept my husband occupied chatting round the pool
without being intrusive, it was a welcome relief to find such good
people on holiday. Les luckily had an interface to his Ipod to
store my images from the 120mb card in my digital camera, which is
why I was able to take so many pictures.
But there is always one
diver on these trips that you instinctively know is a serious twat.
Bullshit really does float. He was from the UK, Midlands I think.
My husband overheard him the previous night telling one of the
Instructors from Ocean Pro how many lobsters he’d got off a “very
deep wreck” and how much money he’d made from the proceeds. Being
in the industry it makes my blood boil. The next day on the manta
trip I was unlucky enough to be sat next to him whilst we kitted
up. He was itching to talk to me, whilst looking at my tits. I’m
normally very chatty with fellow divers, but I was on my guard.
The Conversation went
something like this :
Him : Are you from the UK or
Germany ?
(I had to think very
carefully if I could get away with being German)
Me : UK
-
Do you dive in Stoney Cove ? I’ve dived there loads of times
-
No, it’s too far from where I live, and I prefer the sea
-
But Stoney’s pretty central innit ?
(I thought you’re pretty anal.)
-
It’s quicker for me to go to Chepstow or Wraysbury
-
Where do you live then
-
South Coast. How many dives have you done ?
(thinks: I HOPE I’m not buddying him)
-
Oh, loads and loads. I’m an instructor……..but don’t tell
anyone as I don’t want the responsibility. Can you put on some sun
tan lotion on my back?
-
Can I get this kit sorted first?
-
I’ll go upstairs on the sun deck and wait for you (winks at
me)
My husband was sitting
opposite me watching all of this. I just looked at him and mouthed
something that some people call Jamie Oliver and never went
upstairs. He came down later, gave me a dirty look and said “oh,
one of the other girls has already seen to me”………..I found it very
difficult to keep my mouth shut. But I did. On the first Manta
dive he was the first one up, as I asked my HB who was up first, as
I like to know who gets low on air first. I also noticed he wasn’t
on nitrox (..for an instructor ? Maybe some don’t… ) In the
surface interval the Mantas were near the surface feeding and he was
the only one to see 8 and 2 whale sharks giving birth. Even the
Instructor filming didn’t get those, and he got everything I didn’t
see. Tells you something !!! When we did the second Manta dive
which was the same plan as the first, the OceanPro instructor said
the dive was up to a total of 70 minutes. I said loudly – well yes,
it depends on how much air you use…… I watched him underwater and
he was always at least 5m above me and he was still the first one to
surface. I don’t think I’d like to learn to dive with him. The
next day was Easter Sunday and they’d laid some games and a treasure
trail on for the kids, and he was the first one there.
The Maldives is the best
dive site I have been to since I started diving 6 years ago. I
wouldn’t hesitate to go back and most of the divers I met were on
their second or third return visit. I found the Germans to be very
knowledgeable, polite and very friendly, and it was good to see so
many of them routinely checking their kit on every dive. In fact I
became familiar with the language fairly quickly and didn’t really
need the dive plan translations in the end.
The only bad experience we
had was the flight home. For those of you aren’t bored yet and who
want to read this extraordinary experience click
here.
Chrystianne
Getting there
We flew with
OLT (www.olt.de) Airlines from
Bristol to Olbia (www.olbia.it)
which services the Costa Smerelda (Emerald Coast) in the north east
of the island.
I’d never heard of OLT and
the website didn’t offer anything plane or baggage wise, and on
further research all they said was that it would recognise me as a
diver on the ticket and “see what it could do”. This is actually a
short story from whom I booked it through so
email me for more details if
interested. Baggage: on the ticket was 15kg but 2 of my cases were
24 and 25kg each, and 8kg hand luggage (regs, camera etc) – but
there was no charge for the extra weight either way. The tickets
weren’t cheap, but you get what you pay for. Ryanair who also fly
to Sardinia (Alghero) look cheap but aren’t. I have some horror
stories about them.
We don’t live anywhere near
Bristol so I got a deal from
www.tchotels.co.uk for a B&B for the night, 2 weeks car parking
and taxi to and from the airport for £99.
OLT’s Plane seated about 100
people max so there were no queues either end. The plane was a twin
propeller Saab. The flights were on time to the minute as you would
expect from a German Airline, both ways. Very unstressful. Wide
seats, leather upholstery. Food and drink on the plane was a roll
with cheese and salami, some chocolate things and a drink. There
was wine on the way there but not on the way back, the flight was
about 2.5 hours.
Note : outward flight, you
could see the seabed before you saw the island of Sardinia from the
aeroplane
The Diving –
Anthias Diving
www.anthiasdiving.com in Cannigione
To say that the diving was
superb is an understatement. The viz is at lease on par if not
better than the Caribbean. The Fan Corals are superb. For all I
knew I could have been in the Red Sea. Huge groupers, a large
population of nudibranches and anenomes made photography
interesting, although I’m quite new to the latter. Incredible
scenery underwater made some interesting reef diving. I did one
wreck which was very broken up but scattered all over the seabed.
Penetration wasn’t a problem. There are also numerous caves, and as
the visibility is so good it’s like diving in clear air. Take a
torch, and don’t forget the plug adaptors for re-charging your
electrical equipment.
Here are some
pictures
I used Nitrox which was on
offer at all times up 32% but some dives were 34%. Deepest I went
was 30.8m. The friendly Dive Staff at Anthias spoke English and were
very busy. This didn’t seem to affect the organisation of the dives
and the Divemasters/Instructors were very efficient and organised
IMHO. Everyone knew exactly where to go, you got to know the
routine fairly quickly, kitting up etc. I had my Halcyon harness
system with STA, Keith Lawrence’s Dive Right wing he kindly lent me
for the occasion and the 2m reg hose system which was admired by a
lot of the other divers. I was the only English diver to dive
throughout my 8 dives I did. All the staff carry and put your
cylinders on the RIB and more importantly, help you kit up. The 5mm
Titanium suit I bought off my LDS (www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk) worked
a treat and I wasn’t cold at all in all the dives I did. The water
temperature in September is approx. 21-24 deg, with an outside
ambient temperature of anything from 25-35 deg. Anthias also have a
luxury 12m hard boat that does a whole day’s diving including lunch.
I did a trip to see the groupers, the site is near Corsica and was
definitely worth the extra cost. There were 3 professional
photographers with all sorts of camera systems on that trip, so it
tells you there is good marine life there.
If you stay in Olbia like we
did you have to be picked up from the hotel to dive from Cannigione.
Pick up was 0730 local time, which was out of my sleeping
arrangements, but – what the hell, it was worth it. One of the
owners of the dive centre, Corrado, lives in Olbia. It took ½ to ¾
hour to get to the dive centre in Cannigione.
Location Sardinia
www.locationsardinia.com and Accommodation/Restaurants, and
getting around
The company “Location
Sardinia” is how I heard of the diving in Sardinia through an
article in “Diver” Magazine in 2003, together with a brief report
from a doctor who treated me in 2001.
The service, from research
to booking the holiday in the UK, to the arrival in Sardinia, to the
help from Mike and Judith, the local representatives, was of the
highest quality, professional and very friendly. They are English
but both speak fluent Italian. They met us at the airport, took us
to our hotel and checked us in. Warning : very few Sardinian people
speak English. This is never a problem for me as I speak some
Spanish, Portuguese and am fluent in French anyway and Italians
understand those languages. And – thank god they don’t speak
English, the last thing I wanted to see was any influence of “Brits
abroad” on holiday – it manufactures junk food restaurants, bingo
halls, loud pubs and football hooligans. It’s about time the
British public stopped relying on Europeans speaking English, just
look at how southern Spain has been ruined. Buy a phrase book !!
If you choose self- catering
(I’d do that next time) it would be much cheaper to cater for
yourself if you are up for that, and there are numerous supermarkets
in the area. Fruit is delicious. The hotel
www.hotelterranova.it we stayed in at Olbia boasted a good
restaurant, we ate there several times. We had a double room (a
little on the small side) with a very comfortable bed and en-suite
facilities. Breakfast was basic – juice, rolls, jam and croissants
- I don’t drink coffee but the coffee was delicious. Why is it
that you can’t replicate the taste here ? Oh – and forget the
Starbucks routine on coffee, that was invented by the Americans.
No-one drinks coffee like that in Italy.
Olbia has many good
inexpensive restaurants, mostly serving the same food. Starters (Antipasta)
– shellfish (fresh mussels or clams) or parma ham and melon are
popular – and the taste is superb, because the fruit hasn’t been
forced in a greenhouse and the ham is authentically Italian. First
course (Primi Patti) is usually the pasta dish – spaghetti or
other pasta with local sausage, smoked salmon or shellfish in in a
cream or tomato sauce – delicious. Second course (Secondi Patti)
is either a meat or a fish dish. Sea Bream (Orato) is very
popular, as is a type of Sea Bass, and is served and filleted for
you at the table. The fillet steak with Gorgonzola Sauce was my
favourite. Ask for grilled vegetables (Vedure Grilata), or
if you have to, chips (patate fritti) but mostly on the menus
are just boiled potatoes (patate lesse). The Pizzas are
stunning, and cooked in a wood fire oven. If they don’t cook them
like that in the UK (I don’t eat Pizzas here), you haven’t eaten a
real pizza. If you’ve had all the courses and are still hungry, or
like me, just can’t resist a sweet, go for the Crème Caramel or
Tiramasu. The white wine on offer (vini bianco) is really
tasty and refreshing, nothing like the Italian wines that are on
offer here.
Olbia itself is a small city
with numerous bars, shops, and an evening market selling belts,
sunglasses, handbags, nougat/sweets and costume jewelry. Ice cream
cafés are popular and the ice cream is delicious. It has a large
harbour that is the gateway to Italy. Numerous ferries service the
mainland. The harbour itself is mainly used by visiting yachts from
numerous countries (there was one from New Zealand) and local
anglers with dinghy-type boats. There are no trawlers, much to my
husband’s disappointment, although there are in other harbours. The
harbour area is undergoing development with a new road system and
landscaping, although how long it will take to finish is anyone’s
guess. I was told that for some reason roadworks only get done in
the summer, when all the holiday makers are there, never the
winter. August is the worst time to go there, and all the prices
rise by 25%, so go in September or October when the water is warm
and the weather sunny and the climate hot. We had perfect weather,
and no matter how windy, there is always a dive site available.
Ailments
What do you do if you are
ill on holiday? Most of us take the usual things – insect
repellent, imodiums, ibuprofen etc – but antibiotics ? NO. Air
conditioning in the room gives you a sore throat and I could feel a
cold coming on, and by day 6 I had lost my voice. Imagine – you
can’t dive any more. So I telephoned Judith from Loc. Sardinia on
her mobile and within 24 hours I was assisted in a local “Farmacia”
with her to obtain an antibiotic spray to the throat that, within 48
hours, had cured itself. It’s called "Locabiotal"
Costa Smerelda (Emerald
Coast)
Part of the package (email me) I booked with
Loc. Sardinia included a half day tour of the north east with Mike
and Judith. They knew of the beaches, villages, markets and places
you wouldn’t see or know about unless you’d been there a long time.
A stop in Porto Cervo was a world apart from Olbia. This is where
the rich and famous moor their luxury craft and the designer shops
sell expensive clothing. Restaurants have an Antipasta course on
the menu that starts at around 20 euros. Something we avoided on
our own !!
Car Hire
Think : Italian
drivers can see round corners
Italian drivers overtake even when there are cars coming from the
opposite direction
Italian drivers drive very close to your rear bumper
Italian drivers use their car horn for no reason
Italian drivers are mad
Then you will have an
understanding of the road system and infrastructure. Oh – and fuel
is about 1.16 Euros a litre. Makes us look stupid. Because
Sardinia is very scenic and mountainous most of the roads are
hairpin bends. The road signs aren’t always clear. It reminded me
of Cornwall. After about 3 days we were confident enough to drive
to the very north of the island to Palau, where there is another
harbour that has more ferries that service the nearby islands (where
all the dive sites are).
There is also a dive centre
in Palau called Scuba Point (www.scubapoint.info)
where I was given some information by a English speaking guy. Their
dive boat looked up together, I watched them come in to the
harbour. I was interested because they are right on top of the best
dive sites.
We drove as far south as
Cala Gonone (buy a detailed map before you go, theirs are terrible)
where there is more diving to be explored and numerous caves can be
seen or dived in from boat trips and dive trips organised in the
harbour.
In short, Sardinia is the
emerald island of the Mediterranean and is unspoilt with some lovely
scenery and fantastic diving. It caters mainly for Italians and
some French, Swiss and a few Germans who are on holiday. What is
very popular are motor homes and there are numerous campsites. If
the language puts you off, don’t bother going there, because you
will be so small minded it will sort out the organised divers from
the ones that “book a holiday and then ask uk.rec.scuba where the
dive sites are”
Sardinia is one of the best
holidays I have had and if it was my choice I’d go there every
year. Let’s hope the traditional Sardinian way isn’t anglicised too
much in future years and it can retain its natural beauty.
Chrystianne
Getting
there
Flight time is 7.5 hours
which is quite civilised, until you add in the 1.5 hours to get to
the airport, the hour check in, the hour waiting around for the
plane to take off and the hour immigration checks in Antigua. The
queue is terrible and very slow. Take Eastern Caribbean Dollars as
well as US$ as they are used everywhere, and pay for meals/bills on
credit cards as the exchange rate is a lot better. Temperatures
rarely go below 80°. Water temps are 27°.
The Diving – Jolly
Divers, Jolly Harbour, Antigua
About 6 weeks before I
went I emailed Jolly Divers to book 10 dives as per their package on
the website and asked if they had nitrox. Someone called Ken
informed me that they weren’t very busy at that time of year so it
was best to book a week beforehand, which is what I did. The island
has no nitrox. I also sent an email the day before I flew out (Sat
6th Dec) to say that I would see him on the Monday
morning at 0815 at his office. I didn’t get a reply to this email
so presumed all was fine.
Dec 7th :
Found the Dive Shop
Dec 8th : I
arrived with my husband, who helped me carry my gear to his
office at the stated time of 0815 to find that Ken wasn’t there and
that a lady would take a message. A man, who looked in his mid-50’s
but was actually mid-60’s, then walked through the door and sat at a
desk with his back to us. The lady said to him that I was there to
see him. I said my name was Mrs Hayes (Chrystianne often gets blank
looks) and without looking round, the man said : I don’t do surnames
and put his hands in the air. I looked at his back and my husband
thumped my leg and looked at me and rolled his eyes. I then said
“Chrystianne” of which Ken turned round and said: now, I recognise
that name. I offered my hand for a handshake but got the
distinct impression if he could have been someone other than Ken, he
would have said so. I was then told that I’d missed the diving that
day because they operated from a beach hut and I was too late. I
was terribly disappointed, and somewhat bewildered at Ken’s strange
attitude, and why he hadn’t given me more details on the emails I
sent. Oh well ! I’m looking forward to Tuesday already. Perhaps
Mondays aren’t Ken’s best days.
Tuesday 9th :
Up at 0700, bit of breakfast and started to walk down to the hut I
found on Monday with gear at 0745 for 0800. No-one is ever going to
say that I am late again. Got to hut, deserted. Have I got the
right hut ? About 0810 Ken arrived, turned on the compressor and
opened up the hut. I heard something in the background but wasn’t
sure what it was, so said good morning. No response. Ken lifted a
12 litre aluminium cylinder out of the hut and placed it on the
decking. I got out my log books and c-card and was just about to
say “do you want to see these” when some other people arrived. Ken
looked briefly at my quals but not my books, and put me on the dive
list. He said : Are you going to do the 10 dive package ? I said
yes please, that’s what I booked, so he said, right that will be
$340 or something. I had no credit cards on me as I have always
paid afterwards at these sort of places, seeing as I’m not about to
depart and he had my room number and qual cards etc. So then he
said : No Pay, No Dive. That was it. So why didn’t he tell me
that yesterday in his office, or why couldn’t I have paid yesterday
? Luckily I had $40 on me which covered the 1st 2 dives, I think it
must have fallen out of my passport as you need this as an airport
departure tax. I offered him the $40 which he reluctantly took with
a scowl on his face. Another person at the same time who paid with
a credit card called Neil came up to me afterwards and said that Ken
needed some desperate lessons in Customer Relations, so it wasn’t me
that felt something wasn’t quite right. I started to get nervous.
If this guy was going to take us down to 30m what would be his
priority if something went wrong with one of the divers ? I put my
kit I didn’t need in the hut and realised what the earlier noise
was. Cockroaches. And lots of them.
So – kitting up. Ken
didn’t offer any kind of plan as to what the routine was on getting
on and off the boat unless I specifically asked. The boat was
moored just off the beach. A local lad whom we weren’t introduced
to was starting to load the cylinders on the boat, including the
bottle I’d kitted up with. I asked about torches (shake of head)
whether a hood was necessary (ditto) and didn’t bother asking about
gloves as all the diving I have done in the Caribbean doesn’t allow
them. Neil, my ally, who’d done 460-something dives to my 140, but
was only there to do 2, we checked each other’s kit out and got on
the boat. To say the boat is basic is just about what it is. There
was no safety briefing and I didn’t see a liferaft. I wasn’t
offered a toilet at any time although I think there was one on
board. The dive plans were all virtually the same though. All to
24m 1st dive, 14 2nd. Tell Ken when you’ve
got 100 bar, that is if you can keep up with him.
Now – we are off ! I
asked how long it was to the site and got a straight answer of 20
minutes. Put in my integrated weights and that was it – didn’t seem
enough gear after the twin-set trials in October but hell, the viz
looked great and over we went. Plan was for the 4 or so of us to go
down the bowline but it was much easier just to be negatively
buoyant and get to the bottom and group there, as the weather was
either flat calm with a slight current at the surface or quite
bouncy. To say that the marine life was good is an understatement.
It’s probably the best I have seen in the Caribbean, although
different to Mexico. I saw nurse sharks, stingrays, lobsters, an
eagle ray, a huge brown crab, reef sharks, octopus and eels,
and various species of fish including boxer, puffa, angels, to name
a few. Starfish, arrow crabs and banded coral shrimps are
prolific. Ken was very good at finding the marine life and knew
Cades Reef like the back of his hand, but whilst on the surface he
expected to be sucked up to and wanted continual compliments. I
think the only reason I stuck the rudeness and offhanded way he
treated his customers was because the marine life was so good. On
the second dive we were watching 2 lobsters walking round on the sea
bed but we suddenly saw a huge turtle that was hiding below an
overhang glide out and swim away from us.
The next day, after
checking my kit, which was
drying out in the hut for cockroaches, I took my camera down with me
but unfortunately it flooded. My LDS has said he will sort
something out about it. I took down a couple of single use cameras
– one jammed and the other didn’t produce many worth putting on the
site.
There was an instance
where I thought an “o” ring was missing on the cylinder and asked
Ken if he had a spare, but when he looked he just stated: “It has an
O ring” and walked off. The O ring was transparent, not black.
Another instance after the cylinder was put on the boat, I could
hear a hissing noise from the 1st stage. I wiggled it
like you do and listened again, at which point Ken came up and did
the same and then told me I’d got nothing between my ears anyway so
how could I hear anything ? It might be his idea of a joke but I
really did have to bite my lip. I would have laughed if it had been
KeithL/M , Steve or Tony and filed it away to get my own back, but
not someone I hardly knew where I couldn’t really get my own back.
Perhaps that’s why he asks for payment in advance, so then anyone
who wants to complain is stuck. I didn’t want to have any bad
feeling between us, so said that I might be blonde but I wasn’t
that blonde, which seemed to make the others a little more at
ease on the boat. They could see I was about to burst. Another
incident was when there was just Ken and I on the boat. I took a
little longer than 5 minutes to put in my integrated weights in the
BC during the surface interval
when he suddenly said : You’re gonna annoy the hell out of the
Americans when they come aboard if you take that long to kit up.
Err…..what Americans ? It seemed to me that all Ken wanted to do
was get the dives over as quickly as possible so he could get back
to his 23-year-old wife.
Surface intervals were
barely 30 minutes. If I got there at 8am and it was only Ken and I
we were normally in the water by about 0845 and back on the beach by
1115 having done a 45 min dive to about 24m max and a second dive
for an hour at about 14m. At one point I think Ken tested my air
consumption because we started finning hard against a current and I
had a job to keep up with him. That isn’t my sort of diving as it’s
not really enjoyable even in blue water and as it happened it wasn’t
really necessary. The drill was to let him know when you had 100
bar left but after that little trick I still had plenty left, so
nearly got the hour out of it anyway. I was normally the first one
in the water and the last to get in the boat, my SAC is a cool 12-15
these days. I don’t think Ken expected it, seems he’s more used to
shorter dives. Ha, I thought at one point, you’re not going to
short change me !!! Something else I noticed was that he was
diving a 10-litre cylinder. So what happens if a diver gets short
of air anytime or towards the end of a dive and breathes heavily on
his bottle ? He never buddied anyone up. In fact come to think of
it I never saw the same person more than once. Perhaps they were
put off. I asked Ken if there were any other dive sites apart from
Cades Reef to be told that there was none apart from Bird Island to
the north, some hour or so trek in a boat. After I’d done my 10
dives Bill (husband) and I went to English Harbour for the day to
see Nelson’s dockyard and found a dive centre near St James’ Club
called Aquanauts that went out twice a day to 31 sites, all 6 – 35m
dives. I took their details.
Jolly Harbour is lovely
resort, each villa has its own waterfront and the weather is
perfect. It is, however, quite expensive for a holiday destination
to eat out all the time so I’d go all inclusive. Ken at Jolly
Divers services all the resorts on that side of the island
(apparently – but I saw other dive boats there). I would go back to
Antigua without hesitation as the people are really very friendly,
but I’d use a different dive centre.
My my little private
joke which I knew Ken wouldn’t understand was to say my final words
to him after the 10th Dive.
C U Next Time
Chrystianne
Diving
in South East Spain June 2003
I did a lot of research on the Internet before
I chose this area to have a week’s diving, which paid off, as I
will go back. I wanted
a cheap holiday that was good value for money, something to keep the
DPO happy, a nice apartment and got exactly what it said on the tin.
I dived with Enchanted
Divers and dived most of the time with the Divemaster who runs the
centre, Jim Dyas. He is
a hero because after my camera flooded he let me borrow his and of
course I am stunned by the results, but it must have been pure luck
as I am not a professional photographer, or perhaps it was only
because the marine life was so prolific.
Getting there :
I stayed in Mojacar, an good hour’s drive north of Almeria
airport. Hiring a car
is essential, as the resort is very long.
Hiring it from the airport is much cheaper than hiring one in
the resort. We stayed
in a luxurious inexpensive apartment arranged by the dive centre
that had it’s own BBQ and a swimming pool within the complex.
In June the sun terrace reaches 120° and the mosquitoes are
particularly nasty in the evenings, so take precautions.
Mojacar is very “British in Spain” so the DPO was glad to
be able to travel to the south of the resort to find a large new
fishing port called Cabaneros (how do they get that EC money?) with
brand new trawlers in the harbour.
To the north along the coast 10 minutes in a car will find
another busy refurbished Spanish fishing port – Garrucha - for the
DPO to look at, take photos and observe the fishing methods.
As we are building a new trawler it was like going on a
busman’s holiday. The restaurants are wonderful here, but a bit
expensive. Another
10 minutes past Garrucha is Villarecos is where I did all of my 7
dives. The restaurants
here are very cheap, I had difficulty spending 10 euros on 4 drinks
and 3 tapas at lunchtime. The surrounding area from the coast road
going inland is very mountainous, so you must stick to the coastline
in between dives. There is another dive centre in Villarecos who Jim sometime
teams up with – www.vivarivasports.com
- the contact here is a friendly owner called Ian. They have a much bigger RIB than Enchanted Divers so between
them they could accommodate bigger parties.
The Diving : I dived 4 sites - Villarecos Beach
Tower (max. 10m), Sorting Hat (18m), Barracuda Rock (27m) and The
Cathedral (30m). I have
to say that the marine life is the best I have ever seen in the
Mediterranean. I have
never seen so many moray eels out of their holes and swimming freely
close by me, shoals of barracudas, groupers, octopus, stone fish,
and other shoals of yellow fish and on the Barracuda Rock dive I saw
a tuna. I’ve dived
Cyprus, Malta, Portugal and Majorca and if you put all those dives
together I saw more marine life in this area of the Med.
All dives were planned no-stop although I did go into deco
after 25 minutes (showed 1 min at 3 metres - the Aladin is very
sensitive). I wish I
had planned deco as it was the best, and sadly, the last dive of the
holiday. My average SAC
was about 13, I always came up with at least 40 bar of air more than
the Divemaster ! There
is no Nitrox in the resort and Jim didn’t know of any dive centres
in the surrounding areas that could accommodate nitrox users or
rebreathers.
When I go back I will stay in a different
(Spanish) resort called San Juan in the National Park surrounding
Cabo de Gata, as languages seem to be no barrier for me.
There is a big modern dive centre there that looks all up
together and it was busy. I
believe that there are some very good dives in this area, it’s
just a question of getting back as soon as possible and exploring
the sites before the masses get there
J
Chrystianne
Mexico
Report
December 2002
Hotel
Bahia Principe, Tulum, 1 hour’s drive south of Cancun
Tour
Operator : Airtours (now called MyTravel)
6th
– 20th December 2002 was the cheapest time to go and
gets away from all the Christmas hype.
The flight getting there is gruelling, but we did upgrade the
seat to Premiair Gold which was worth it.
We also had 25kg baggage allowance each, so took my 3mm
titanium suit, hood, BC, regs, snorkel, mask and a spare snorkel and
mask for my husband. I used their warm water foot fins at no extra
charge. The dive centre
is in the resort which in all honesty is a “bubble” : an
all-inclusive place boasting 2 hotels and about 10 restaurants.
Go out of the resort and you get real Mexico (see my report
on holidaysuncovered.co.uk then
go to Mexico all resorts and Tulum for the practical stuff).
Took
me 2 days to get over the jet lag.
Arriving on the Friday after the11 hour flight was
exhausting, and the Airtours rep that said whilst selling the
excursions that she “went on a bit” on the journey down to Tulum
was an understatement. I had already booked with the dive centre on the beach of the
hotel resort (bahiadivers.com) so ignored the Airtours rep of a dive
centre somewhere else where you had to get transport (difficult and
expensive), and strangely enough you were not covered on your
Airtours insurance if you dived with anyone else.
Get your own insurance or email me for details, it’s
another story. Nothing
wrong with the Bahia Divers dive shack on the beach – couldn’t
be better. I never
carried one cylinder in all my 12 dives, they also kit up for you
before you join the boat but check the kit up, because once they
connected my dry hose to my inflator valve.
I started my diving on the Monday 9th, and did 12
dives in all.
The
diving was superb, the best since the Zenobia in Cyprus.
I didn’t do any wrecks but you don’t need to for the
marine life. I saw
Turtles on most dives and on one dive just 15 mins in the boat off
the beach whilst doing a usual 30m to 16m average dive I saw 4.
I was the first one off the boat and the last one on, (my air
consumption is outstanding these days) and I did my 100th
dive there and saw a huge barracuda as a final present.
Cozumel,
which is reputed to be the next best thing to the barrier reef, was
fantasic and rays, tropical fish, huge groupers and more turtles
were to be found, although sharks and dolphins can be present at
other times of the year. Just
check with the resort dive shack by email before you go. It’s a
full day trip incorporating a ferry ride.
Apparently there are hatching turtles in March in Akumel, not
far from the resort.
Caves.
Underwater caves. Depth between 2 and 8 metres.
Buoyancy skills are essential.
No-one could ever prepare me for the experience of a
lifetime. 2 dives of
about 30 mins each. Completely
different dive plans – you divide your total air into 3 and head
back to base on the 2nd third.
You have a leader, of course.
Don’t be put off by the claustrophobia feelings you may
have, it is perfectly safe, crystal clear waters and I am, with my
short experience, very cautious.
I won’t tell you too much about it because you will have to
do it for yourself. My
husband went snorkelling in them and did 2 snorkel swims of 30 mins
each and was astounded, so non-divers have an experience too.
Pics on site. Snorkellers
take plenty of anti-mosquito guard.
I
had one of those waterproof cameras that go to 6m with me and took
pics whilst snorkelling off the beach in the resort.
There is a reef just off the shore line of the beach which is
outstanding – take a stale bread roll and see the shoals of
tropical fish that follow you, then see the ones underneath at 2m.
I
bought 2 single use cameras in the resort for $30 that go to 28m,
took some very good pictures (see my gallery) but use the flash all
the time as sometimes they can be very “blue” or dark if a cloud
passes over the sun. I would also recommend a camera I found out
about after I got home that is about £90 that would do the job a
bit better, plus you get to use the camera again.
Email me for details.
The
viz was either very good (30m+) or quite bad (10-15m) after some
rains and high winds experienced and I guess at that time of year it
can be a bit volatile, but no hurricanes.
Most
of my buddies were Canadian with little experience (although I met
one lady with 70 dives) but most were about 10 dives or just
qualified, or hadn’t dived for a while.
The latter told me he had done “lots of dives” but I
still checked his air after 20 mins and he was on 1000 psi, yes,
they use psi, so if it’s less than that and at 700 it’s time for
him or her to go up. If
I hadn’t checked for how much air he had left he would have been
on my octopus. Be
warned, some buddies in blue water unless you know them or they are
husband and wife don’t check their air.
Most
of the dives apart from the caves were to 30m/avg17m - the first
dive at 9am and the second about 16m/12m, (novices at 14:30 to 10m)
so all the correct profiles and very safe instructors that have 2
dive computers, one apparently safer than my Aladin Ultra Pro.
All stops, no matter how deep you had been and for the length
of time were 3 mins at 5m.
All
in all, a fantasic holiday.
On
my 100th dive I was offered a job with Bahia Divers but
declined as that is not my preference, but it was nice to be asked.
I
would definitely go back, probably in 2004
as I want to do mid Portugal, Eastern Spain and possibly
Antigua this year, or in reality, none of those due to business
commitments !!
Chrystianne
Dive
report for CYPRUS - Second time around
March 2002
After my
"My Maderia Experience" (See Room 101) I got back and
immediately booked a flight to Cyprus. Just to say that
although the same people weren't working there, a girl called
Katrina who was on her 3rd dive when I went there last time had
become an instructor. I buddied her most dives. I will
never get over the size of that Zenobia wreck, I got vertigo
looking over the deck space ! I did 2 new sites I hadn't done
before and I didn't do the Canyon, (see previous report) they don't
do that one any more, thank god. Accommodation is £9 a night
and it's a 1-bedroom flat that sleeps up to 2, maybe 4 people if
you're friendly. Only other thing to watch out for at this
time of year is that not many places are open and the food is basic
and everything with chips. If you don't like chips, like
me, then you're a bit cattle trucked. Try the Moussaka or
Lasagne, but take Imodiums. Take Anti-sickness pills if
you hate flying. No mosquitos were seen but I got bitten
twice. Nevertheless I shall go back !
Chrystianne
Dive
report on LANZAROTE February 2001
At the Dive
Show (unmissable) in Birmingham in October 2000 I met someone on a
stand from Calypso Diving who told me they had a dive centre in
Costa Teguise in Lanzarote. I asked him what the
likelihood was of "seeing them sharks that are on those there
piccies" and was told that at least 3 dives out of 4 would
bring me a result. The exchange rate of pesetas to £'s was quite
good and I decided to book a package holiday through
Airtours, then I booked over the internet 6 dives. I booked
for February 2001. On arrival my hotel was as promised in the
brochure and after finding the dive shop the next day lo and behold
there was my name on the list. The dives were exactly as
described to me at the Dive Show and my experiences with the sharks
and finding the sea horse and all those barracudas was just
overwhelming, nearly as good as Cyprus and the Zenobia. I met
a couple where the wife, who has a briliant sense of humour, didn't
dive, but didn't mind her husband diving (shock) with me, he's
called Mark Purchase and he belongs to the Bracknell BSAC (see
link). We buddied well. Plus he's a star in my book
as he got me a cheap bottle at the Glasgow Dive Show. It was
at this point that although the weather was warm most days, I got
cold in my semi-dry 2-piece in 18° of water and it was becoming
difficult to get on and off. Either I've got fatter or the
neoprene had shrunk. No mosquitos and the food was very good
in the restaurants and the hotel. Then, well, after a
wonderful dive holiday just round the corner is that there
Dive Show coming up again in March. LIDS, this time at the new
Excel halls in North East London. I'd done a bit of research
on dry-suits and after talking to some friends I found most
favoured Northern Divers. Being only 5ft tall I had to get one
made to measure. I wanted membrane, too, as most of my home
dives are in the South of England. The undergarment was
standard, kevlar gloves, fleecy socks and made to measure hood and
inflator hose all in for a very good price. Email
me for details.
Chrystianne
Cyprus
(Dive In, Larnaca) : 20th June 1999
Destination :
Larnaca,
6-14 June
Dive School : Dive In, Larnaca (Highly recommended),
Accommodation and 5-dive pack arranged entirely over the internet
Experience : Me, BSAC Sports with 32 dives, very cautious, always
plan carefully. Daughter Tania (21) just completed PADI OW
After a nasty turbulent 4 ½ hour flight at 4am from LHR we arrived
in Larnaca where our clothes stuck to us like glue, 37 deg of heat
and sunshine. What a shame. It was like that all week. We were
collected by Lisa, the Dive school’s manageress who whisked us to
our Hotel about 15 mins away, no holiday reps giving you the
excursion sales pitch on coaches that take hours to get to your
accommodation. Lisa immediately informed us we were staying bang in
the centre of the red light district. I gave my husband (a
non-diver) about £15, he said it was just enough to buy drinks and
a sandwich. The Dive Centre was about 2 mins walk from the Hotel
(which was very good and well run, the girls didn’t bother us one
bit) so we got our bearings. We went to the dive centre, met the
staff (very friendly and helpful), the ratio of punters –v-
instructors was well balanced, and talked shop.
Next day Lisa took us to the first shore dive site in Dhekalia, an
Army base, of which we were kindly offered fresh water showers and
help should we require it. I thought : this is luxury. There’s
cafes, shops and all facitilites. We did 2 x 6m dives, fed the fish
(plentiful) and kept a keen eye on the barracuda who kept a watchful
eye on us. There are some small wrecks littered around the jetty,
fireworms (that sting) and sea slugs etc etc, Tania, who is studying
Marine Biology and Oceanography was that happy she needed surgery to
take the smile off her face.
Next day there was about 12 of us, we were all instructed to take
plenty of bottled water as the nearest café was 3 miles away from
the site. This site is called the "Canyon". We all piled
in the vehicles and set off towards Aiya Napa and then beyond, on a
dirt track that had that many potholes, rivets and rocks we bounced
around like tennis balls. We came to a halt at what appeared to be
the top of a rocky climb downhill to the sea, I though my God, this
can’t be it. I had trouble climbing down to have a reccie and when
I eventually did see the water there was a sheer drop of about 4
metres with a very rickety ladder to the site entrance. It took me
another trek uphill to get back to the vehicles whereupon I saw
people starting to kit up in the boil-your-brains sunshine. Lisa
then told us what the routine was and Tania said she couldn’t do
it, but we persevered and we all took our time. I consider myself to
be quite fit but only being 5ft tall and small frame with a 15ltr
bottle I didn’t make it to the ladder and fell over, bruising my
knees. No instructors to be seen. Fortunately this blond Swiss 6ft
6" hunk asked : are you OK ?? and I looked at him through
sweaty eyes and thought about knights in shining armour, especially
the blond kind, well he picked up my BC & cylinder like a bag of
sugar and handed it down the ladder. Tania said when we were on the
surface about to do the dive "this better be worth it",
which echoed all our feelings. The first 10m was quite interesting,
it does look like a canyon but no marine life as such. Then sand,
and more sand, then a small reef at 22m. We saw one ray with a
wing span of about 12". The dive back to the exit point was
hard work as the tide had just started to move and I started getting
a little concerned about our air consumption, as it appeared Tania
and I were finning very hard and getting nowhere. It’s the first
time I’ve come up with 30 bar, I always plan 50 and I would have
had more like 70 if the tide wasn’t there. Lisa didn’t tell us
about the tide, but I don’t think she expected it either. Getting
back to the vehicles was so difficult I couldn’t step up 4"
with all that kit on. My Swiss blond yet again assisted me whilst I
poured out my thanks. I would have to think very carefully about
doing that dive again.
The next site was another (not so bad) rock climbing session, or you
can do a giant stride from a cliff but the drop is 3 or 6m, which
was Tania’s option. I get vertigo big time so I chose the rock
route. This site is called "Caves and Tunnels" (12m). I
would do this dive again without any hesitation, I’ve only ever
done one cave before but to do six was great. After the first two my
confidence got better. Tania loved this dive as well. Well worth the
trek.
Next 2 days we spanned 4 dives on the Zenobia wreck inside and out,
bow and stern, wow, what a wreck this is. For anyone who has done
this they will agree with me that you can dive it so many times and
see different things every time. It’s a ro-ro cargo ferry sunk in
1980 with no loss of life 1 -2 miles outside Larnaca harbour. It’s
lying on its side. Top is 16m, bottom 43m so it’s a dive for
novices and the more experienced. The propellors are about 20ft
across each, and are magnificent. It’s safe to go inside, so we
went into the bridge and saw the controls (what was left of them)
and the restaurant which has a large coffee maker, a microwave, and
the fixed tables and chairs are still there. There is a room where
the ornate wallpaper is still stuck and the carpets still have the
tartan pattern on. Some of the cargo, jeeps and lorries are
accessible, you can actually get in the drivers seat and make out
you’re driving the vehicle. At 43m there is the consignment of
ships stores, hundreds of eggs have spilt out onto the sea bed,
which you can juggle like golf balls. There are lots of fish to see,
barracuda again and shoals of grouper silently and slowly swim along
quite happily with you. Plus the usual breams, parrot fish etc etc.
The max depth I did was to 30m where the first propellor is, it was
a limit I set myself. This is a definite for everyone who loves
diving.
I would highly recommend the Dive Centre, Dive-In Larnaca, who also
have another Dive Centre in Limmasol and also a Hyperbaric Oxygen
Therapy Centre. The staff were very professional. Sam gave us the
confidence on our first Zenobia dive and Andy helped me with my
confidence to get through the windows (and out again). Peter the
Russian assisted me at 25m when my cylinder clip got caught on the
wreck and the bottle literally was falling off my back. Dive-In
advertise in the Diver Mag and will be offering a good deal for next
year, 1 week’s diving (5-pack), accommodation and flights for £399.
I’m on the plane already.
Chrystianne
