EGYPT NOVEMBER 2003
Living a Sharm'd Life – By Graham Purvis
Following
an offer too good to refuse, a motley crew of club members set off for one
of the great diving destinations, Sharm El Sheik in the Red Sea. First challenge
for the team was how to get Brett Maton's Inspiration Re-breather down to
32Kg, so the wussies at Gatwick would accept the box onto the aircraft. The
re-breather was taken apart bit by bit on the floor of the check-in area,
and distributed among everybody's hand luggage. Martin Lennard then proceeded
through security carrying a plastic bag of white granular material, an alarm
clock and batteries and never got stopped. Yvonne Fisher did because of her
lead ankle weights! Wear them in the water Yvonne!! Watching Pirates of the
Caribbean set the scene on the plane........ (Click
here for full report)
SPAIN OCTOBER 2003
Javia and Denia, being an hour north of Alicante is outside the "Kiss me quick" zone. With an underwater reserve (the Cabo S'Antonio), many caves and drop-offs this has tempted me for some time. We were full of anticipation, but the weather decided otherwise, arriving to 'Hawaii five-oh' waves and horizontal rain ...the worse in recent history (in one day 2mr of sand was stripped from the beach!). We didn't hold much hope for diving, but the beer-consumption-paella-trough mode looked very promising (every black cloud eh?). Although the weather cleared, the sea was like pea soup (a real good Solent like consistency!). But, to my amazement, within 3 days it cleared wonderfully (10-20+ metres vis)... so we finally got wet, but 5 dives later, the weather set in again ..damn damn damn!.
So was it worth the effort? The good news:
The weather was exceptionally bad, many German and English dive centres work right through the winter and normally expect good dives, in clear blue water, 20-18 C, throughout. Being a nature reserve, there is prolific sea life compared to many Mediterranean sites. there are deep wrecks and many boats go out to Ibiza and Formentera (about 2-3 hours trip) The area has many caves, the main one "Moraig", is some 1 -2 KM long (it has not yet been fully explored). The "normal" penetrations go in for 345 Mr. This can be undertaken as a PADI Cavern Dive speciality course, available locally. We did'nt get the opportunity to do this, but even for an old 'dive poof' like me, it was very tempting. South of Denia are many rocky coves, with deep drop offs, absolutely perfect for shore diving. For the very keen, there is a reservoir some 2 hour drive inland (at 500+ mewtres altitude is yet another speciality course to add to the collection) but being the end of summer it was almost empty and a bit too green.for me (the scattering of dead fish definitely put me off!). Flights are 2 hours from Gatwick, and very cheap (about £95). Accommodation is reasonably priced and available near the dive centres. Ample food and beer places: good and very cheap. Expect to pay £15-18 for a boat dive (this includes weights and bottles) filled bottles for the day (not too bad about £5-7 each).
Chris Vossel-Newman
GILDENBURGH 30 - 31 SEPTEMBER 2003
About
14 club members drove to Gildenburgh Water for the weekend of 30/31 September
for a fun packed weekend. There was an Advanced Open Water course being
run at the same time, but a number of club members just
went for the crack. Even the Teckies were there ... sporting some nice
shiney gear and even shinier torches. Nice to see you Daren and Pat.
Moments
of note .... Two in particular - the Austin Powers impressions in the
pub, all captured on video and hopefully appearing on the website soon and
Graham Purvis who came out of the closet with a fetching pair of very tight
shorts straight from "Live and Let Die". We never knew he
batted for the other side! For
those of you who have not been, Gildenburgh is a great little dive site.
Accommodation is in some of the caravans which, although slightly on the rough
side, are extremely cheap, dry and warm. Entrance fees are only £6.50
a day, so a good cheap weekend except for the second mortgage spent on beer
and curry on the Saturday night. The divi
ng
.... well there is plenty to see in "Gildy" as the owners have placed
all sorts of wreckage in the lake; double decker buses, lorries, planes, coaches
and cars. In addition, there is a great deal of fish life including
some monster Perch and 2 huge Pike. Like many inland sites,
visibility can be a bit hit and miss depending on the buoyancy, but we
managed 6 dives (including a night dive) and had a great time. The real
bonus, 22m maximum depth, no driving once you are there (bar/cafe on site),
no queues like Stoney, and you can dive no matter what the weather.
As the winter starts to close in and boat diving becomes a bit more uncertain
we will be including a few more trips to Gildy so look through the programme
and get your name down.
SOUTH AFRICA 1 - 12 SEPTEMBER 2003
Tickets
in hand, equipment packed the intrepid explorers were packed into the transport
to begin the exploration of deepest South Africa. The journey to the airport
began with a slight hiccup with the dive team going one way and the dive equipment
going the other. After a quick phone call explaining that if we arrived at
the airport without equipment, the driver of the support vehicle would require
hospital food for life, quickly remedied the error. We met the rest of the
group at Heathrow and checked in, the fears of excess baggage were unfounded
as all went well without payment, and luckily enough Martin Gilling's brother
owns Heathrow Airport so it would not have been a problem anyway apparently?
On arrival in South Africa ........(Click here
for full report)
PORTHKERRIS 19 - 21 AUGUST 2003
Chris
VN led 16 intrepid members to Porthkerris for the first Club trip to sunny
Cornwall on 19th August. Well, it was supposed to be sunny, but the blue sky
disappeared as we turned left on the A303 to be replaced with gray clouds,
showers and a bracing force 4 - 5 wind. The next trick was finding the
site, after several frantic calls and many hilly goat tracks everyone amazingly
arrived. Most camped at the dive center, we chose a site on top of the
hill overlooking the manacles. Whilst having stunning views it was, frankly,
Spartan, particularly having to hike down to the beach for the toilets/showers
and, more worrying, a bloody long hike down to the pub (worse coming back!).
Next time we camp on the Beach! Thankfully the beer was good, especially the
post pub tent party Saturday night (Many thanks to Tom for getting the tinnies
in and the crap music from his car!)...... (Click
here for full report)
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