Lanzarote Day 5 - The German Venus - 05/07/2017

I remember being in Florence's Uffizi Gallery and looking at Botticelli's masterpiece The Birth of Venus. Her modesty was protected by her flowing hair. I never loved the picture, though to be honest I'm not a fan of Renaissance painting.

My final day of diving with Dawn Dives brought back that memory. You see, we were diving in the North East of the island at a nudist colony - fortunately we still got to dive in wetsuits! One of my buddies for the day - a fellow Scot - reassured me that it was a great dive and one of the few in the world where you're almost guaranteed to see both tentacles and testicles on the same dive. 

We kitted up and  headed down the carved cliff staircase to the rocks below without seeing a single nudist. I assumed nudists, unlike divers, were late risers.

The site is actually pretty barren in terms of fish life, but the steeply tumbling white sands provide a home to a a number of rays. However, most divers come here for the topography and the opportunity to go deep quickly. 

It was pretty spectacular on both dives, yielding torpedo rays and stingrays on both dives. Hervie's eyes were good at spotting them too.

However, the Venus memory was brought back to me at the end of the dive when I came up from three metres at the long swimming pool style stairs onto the rocks. As I looked up, at the top of the stairs stood a German Venus - proud and unabashed with no clam shells or long hair to cover her modesty. Yet it was me that was emerging from the sea.

Ski slopes

Torpedo Ray

Octopus

Stingray

Stingray

Buddies

Buddies

Lanzarote Day 4 - The Night Shift - 04/07/17

One of my many vices is diving in the dark. Tonight I got the chance to be present at the shift change - when the day shift ends and the reef night shift begins. Diving with a relatively inexperienced French PADI instructor still keen to get a variety of different dives under his belt.

There was 10 euro premium for a night dive, but experience has told me that it is money well spent. 

Calimera Reef was just outside the hotel gates and it at about 8 metres deep it's an ideal beginners site, but I had doubts about how good it would be. I can say with all honesty that it wasn't the best dive I've ever done, but it was pretty good.

It started well, in mostly daylight with a cuttlefish scuttling away from us towards reef fish looking for a place to hole up for the evening. As we continued reef fish gave way to sea cucumbers, octopus, moray eels, crustaceans and diadem sea urchins.

We stayed down for around an hour before slowly returning in dark to the entry point. It was then when the dive highlights presented themselves - a roaming stingray and a seahorse galloping across its rock home.

As we walked back to the hotel the Maxi suggested that he liked night diving, I agreed.

Octopus

Sea cucumber

Seahare

Moray Eeel

Scorpion fish

Seahorse

Lanzarote Day 4 - Museo Atlantico - 04/07/2017

As regular readers will know, one of the primary reason was to visit the Museo Atlantico. As part of our trip both myself and Gill.I.Am opted to do it. G was a bit nervous about diving from a RHIB for the first time, but she wasn't the only one. In fact, I was the only paying diver on the boat who had ever rolled off a boat. As such it then fell to me to plop in first, while thre guide explained the procedure. In the end, I think they all enjoyed the experience of a roll. 

The route round the museum is a little like a tourist route round a conventional museum. It tells the story of the journey to Europe that African migrants face. It's strangely chilling when compared to the frivolity of the statues you find behind the curtain. It's genuinely moving.

Life on the dive is a little hit or miss, but fortunately for Gill - who had missed out on angel sharks earlier in the week - managed to see one amongst the statues.

The other significant life around the museum were trigger fish - angry, aggressive, trigger fish. The moment it bit me was a shock. It just felt like someone had stuck needles into my arm. Back on the surface we realised at least three of us were bitten.

It was a worthy dive if you like sunk stuff. 

Gill with biting triggerfish

Lanzarote Day 3 - Playa Chica & the Thermoclines of Fridgia - 02/07/2017

Yeah OK, I may have made up the name "the thermoclines of fridgia", but it was an interesting component of our dives at Puerto Del Carmen. We left Playa Blanca and headed for a dive entry spot that held a few dives within its range. We dived two: The Shrimp Cave and the Cathedral.

The first dive led by Pepe was probably my favourite. We kitted up, did a stride entry off the pier and then proceeded to swim out at 5m midwater until the sand ebbed away beneath and then we dropped down by the sea cliffs to 35m. We levelled off with the rest of the divers a little above us. Pepe signalled for me to drop and have a look in the cave as I did I went through the 37m thermocline and into the cold. It was freezing. I stayed at 40m briefly and then returned to the warmth enjoying the scenery and the fauna - rays and octopus mostly, but also some nice orange corals and fireworms.

At the surface an Italian girl asked if I'd seen the nudibranchs. I hadn't. Something I'd rectify on the second dive.

After a cup of tea we were ready to go back in. This time the dive was being led by two dive master trainees. They were nervous, but eager to impress. I asked their teacher if he wanted me to be a disaster underwater for them. He laughed, but politely declined. 

As we descended, this time straight out from the beach, we hit a current. Not fully understanding the briefing but comfortable with my own ability dive, I think they had planned to replicated Pepe swimming out in the open water at 5m before dropping down to maximise bottom time. The current, however, had other plans and it took them about 5 minutes to realise that they were going nowhere and the golden rule of diving in the current is to get down, closer to bottom and the wall. In fact, I saw Pepe signal from the back. The plan had changed.

It didn't bother me. I still kept my eyes peeled for nudibranchs and at 33m I began to see them - everywhere. Two types, the purple flabellina and the variable seaslug. I took some snaps casually hitting my deco limit as I did and then headed up with crew back onto the shallower flats at 20m where we had another great angel shark encounter.

While doing my safety stop, Pepe signalled how much air I had then when I indicated I had plenty he led me into towards the rock face and into a really nice little cavern.

Two great dives, although I don't know if the DMTs passed their skill. :)

Orange Coral

Purple Flabellina

Fireworm

Exiting the cave

Lanzarote Day 1&2 - Charlotte Reef & the Flamingo Wall -01/07/2017

Days 1&2 saw me dive the same dives two days on the trot. The first with my guide Reinus,  and the second with Gill.i.am after I had established that the diving would be to her tastes.

Now I said in my introductory post that one of the reasons to come here was that we both wanted to see seahorses and angel sharks. Neither dive site disappointed.

At Charlotte Reef (one of two local house reefs on both days no sooner had we dropped down to about 4m when the guides pointed to the seaweed attached to a rock. We looked closer and there was a perfectly camouflaged seahorse rocking back and forward in the swell.

After that, we passed a slew of the usual sub tropical reef fish including:

• Moray eels
• Ornate wrasse
• Dusky grouper
• Triggerfish
• Varible seaslugs

Oh, and my new favourite fish, the Bastard Grunt - follow the link it's a real fish.

With Gill deciding to skip the nearby Flamingo Wall - a site where on the first day I saw two angel sharks I feared she may miss her chance to see the critically endangered species.

Flamingo Wall proved to be a pleasant harbour wall down to 18m and then a flat coral encrusted lava flow out. It yielded a nice selection of octopus, cuttlefish, stingrays as well as the aforementioned angel sharks.

I was impressed. I wanted to see more of Lanzarote's sub-aqua environment. Moreover, even with my dive certifications I'd proven myself to be a competent diver and they were happy to take me deeper and further afield.

Octopus

Variable Seaslug

Moray Eeel

Seahorse

Angel Shark

Sea Bream

Cuttlefish

A Chance Encounter -30/06/2017

A few months ago, while browsing the BBC website, I happened upon an article that piqued my interest. The article was about the latest Jason deCaires Taylor installation in Lanzarote. It appealed for a number of reasons:

1. I've been to the MUSA in Cancun  and enjoyed the combination of art and scuba
2. I was looking for an inexpensive* summer holiday location
3. Even Gill.I.Am fancied diving it

So I had a hunt around and booked a Thomas Cook package holiday to the H10 Rubicon Palace in Playa Blanca - home of the museum. The hotel is well placed with an on site dive centre (Dawn Dives Lanzarote) and the nearby Dive College Lanzarote - both get 5 star reviews on tripadvisor.

I followed both on a well known social media channel before deciding to to dive the hotel based Dawn Dives because:

1. It's basic price for 10 dives is cheaper - that may prove to be a mistake depending on how many boat dives I do
2. I'm lazy
3. They posted more pictures of what I want to see - angel sharks and seahorses

So there we have it. I'm here and about to dive. If you want to know more about what I'll be diving because you can't wait then check out this handy Lanzarote Dive Guide.

*Yes, I know inexpensive is a relative term, but Lanzarote is a pretty affordable destination for many of us living in Europe.