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 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