Rather surprisingly, even in the enormity that is Gatwick Airport, we all managed to find each other, but even more surprisingly, no-one was charged excess baggage!! A short flight and a brief bus trip later and we arrived in the dead of night at our apartments in L’Estartit.
We woke the next morning to brilliant sunshine and lots of wind - we later found out that Paul D and Alex had been having farting competitions in bed, but even that couldn’t account for the stiff breeze! Undeterred, we wandered down to the quay side for our one dive of the day and met our boat and skipper, Calypso and Peter respectively. Everyone bagged their space on the boat except Dave who had bagged two and we began to motor out. Some 30 seconds later, the skipper informed us we had arrived and gave us the first of his detailed briefings............“Right, we’re here, so when you’re ready - oh and don’t go between those two islands as the waves get really big” and that was it!!
Everyone piled in and found, much to their surprise, that the water was really rather cold but there was plenty to be seen in terms of fish life etc. About an hour later, Chi surfaced and exclaimed how warm the water was (in his new dry- and under-suit).
Day 2 was too windy for diving (Paul and Alex must have had too much beer/curry) so everyone wandered off to do their own thing and enjoy a first paella. The following day was much better and we enjoyed our second dive on the marine reserve. And it was stunning!!! Paul and Chi found a small “tangle” of octopuses (at least fifty they reckoned - a pattern that continued for the rest of the week) while the rest of us contented ourselves with loads of fish, feather duster worms, gorgonians and anemones.
Dolphin Cave was first up on the following day and we decided that it was imperative that we beat the Northampton divers into the cave, as they had already established themselves as bottom-haulers. And boy, was it worth it! Everyone who hadn’t done underwater caving before found to their pleasure that the caverns were really large with occasional skylights that lit up the interior. At the southern opening of the cave was its namesake - a bronze dolphin set into the rock. A second tunnel took us into an even larger cavern and then a final tunnel about 5m in height led back out to the outside. But not before we found the biggest, meanest-looking lobster I have ever seen! This one had claws the size of a man’s hand and came out to get anyone who ventured near him!! At the back of the hollow it was living in, I swear I saw a few masks and bits of rubber suit.
As the week wore on, we could estimate the length of time of our dives as to whether Caroline was back on board before us or not. She started to form a pattern: dive for just under an hour before the urge to pee was too great and then she could be seen running across the top of the water back to the boat, shouting for the bucket to pee in. The crew got unzipping her and passing the bucket into the hold down to a fine art. We got to draw straws to see who would have the honour of emptying the pee bucket over the side. I don’t think the others cottoned on but I would always rinse my mask in the sea (not the bucket) after that. Still, at least she managed to save it for the bucket rather than peeing off the back of the boat - and on top of anyone climbing out too, unlike someone else on the trip. It’s probably the first time that Alastair’s suit has needed to be washed in shampoo!!
Later in the week the two of us (John and Caroline) and Donna did another fantastic dive in and out of Dolphin cave then back to a cave that surfaced in an air pocket in a hidden cave. Caroline headed back to the boat as it neared the ‘golden’ hour, but Donna and I continued onto the hidden cave.
The cave entrance was much bigger than I had thought and was easy to swim into. The water was crystal clear and lower down were ‘shimmers’ from thousands of tiny fish. As we both headed in we were checking our air and time and looking round for land marks for on the way out.
The cave seemed to go in a long way, but soon we started to ascend from 10 m to the subterranean surface. The light bounced round the under surface and refracted through to light up different parts of the cave above. It was magical as we broke the surface. The feeling was great. The cave lead on as a dry cave. We both had around 50 bar and I had been more than a little nervous about low air in a cave. We had also been told equalising our ears could be a problem coming back out which it was but we managed. Still, the journey out was very short and we were soon back at the boat.
We could keep going with loads of stories from the trip - because there are very many more, but there just isn’t space in the mag!! Paul continued to match his record for huge numbers of octopus seen, Rory saw lots of fish swimming with their eyes tightly shut (probably the brand new Kowalski) and the Northampton lot continued to see a lot of silt. The trip as a whole was amazing - not just in terms of the prolific and beautiful marine life, but also the fantastic company, great food and wonderful scenery. Even the days off from diving were really good fun. In fact the whole week ran really smoothly and that was down to Donna - a big thank you to you for organising such an amazing holiday!!
by John and Caroline
Last Edited 29/08/2002