Diving in Almuñecar...!!!!

Almuñecar Padi Dive centre..!
This was the bay in which we did the second dive from the beach...!!

Well, for those of you that know me well, will realise that I was pretty excited and pleased (major understatement!) to have this opportunity to go diving here…. I had to get some of my documents faxed to me earlier in the week (thank you Sarah at LSD!), and pray that they would allow me to dive as basically I hadn’t brought anything with me to dive (which I was now totally regretting).

It was an early start the alarm going off at 06:30..! Maria picked me up early we headed off, by now it may not surprise you to know that I wasn’t totally sure where we were heading, only that it was in the direction of Malaga…

We actually went to a place called Almuñecar the roads were pretty all nestled between the coast and the mountains and we got to see the sun rise over the sea – very pretty…. We reached Almunecar the place without problem but drove round about 4 times (with several phone calls in Spanish!) before finally finding the padi dive centre…. By which time we were late….!!

Fortunately normally it does not take me long to get my kit together…. However I had not remembered how much I hated rental equipment (having been spoiled for a long time having my own kit!) in particular the wetsuits…(there are several reasons for this which I will not include here!!). However the main one is that thick wetsuits are VERY difficult to get on… this is even when you are given a wet suit that is supposed to fit you… lets just say the instructor was a little on the optimistic side as the first 2 wet suits he gave me were both size SMALL…!! NEVER in my life have I been a small, I did say in the beginning that I didn’t think it would fit but he insisted I try ( with both) after which I shouted NO ME GUSTA (I don’t like!!!)… Went out to the kit room and got myself a 6mm suit (declined gloves and a rash vest) which I at least stood a fighting chance of getting into but by now I had no skin left on my knuckles on 4 of my fingers – those of you who dive and have been through this will know what I mean – those of you that haven’t just take my word for the fact it is not pleasant..! Not made any easier that all of the people that were with me yesterday when I struggled at the mountain were here also with us diving….!!

SO, the suit by now is kind of on but not done up, saying I will sort it on the boat!! The boots I was given were about 3 sizes too big and a small BCD (as there were no mediums left!!). I threw the kit together (this bit for me is very quick) and headed to the beach to the boat. Headed off on the boat out to who knows where… I was the only “foreigner” on the boat the remainder being Spanish.

First group jumped off the boat with their mask fins and weight belts on….!! With the rest of kit being handed down to them…..Different…!! I was left to my own devices kindly declining any help and very quickly had my kit on and was in the water – to a balmy 15 degrees (in a 6mm wet suit – Hard core..!!)

I won’t bore you all with the full details of the dive (those of you who want a bubble by bubble account email me and I will provide you with one..!) However the basic details are that we first did a site called ‘Marine del Este’ which was at 18m for 41 minutes. The briefings etc were all in Spanish….Which I just about followed, or at least picked out the bits I needed to know…!! The highlight was that we saw a Mola Mola or sun fish (see picture) this is a strange fish which is quite rare so this made all the wet suit hassles well worth while…!! Generally the water was very clear and dive pretty pleasant.

Our second dive was just off the beach ‘Playa Cortobro 21’ I was leading and had managed to borrow a dive computer from the centre by this time (with my pigeon Spanish!)… Max depth was 10m we did 40 minutes and highlights were a free swiming octopus who ‘inked’ when approached by one of the divers, and a scorpion fish plus lots of blennies (who I said ‘Hola’ to (hola not hello as of course they are Spanish blennies) from Michele!!)… The diving overall was typical Mediterranean but probably with more fish than I would sometimes expect…This whole experience has reminded me how much I hate rental equipment..!! But also how much I love my diving and have missed it through my student years. I can’t wait to be earning money again and have free time to go and do my own diving again rather than primarily teaching (which I also enjoy but is not the same as pleasure diving). Plus the big bonus here is that it is cheaper than the UK and the vis is better about 12m in most places.……!!!!!!

We had lunch before heading back and I got to try paella here (although was told it wasn’t the best example, it was OK though to me)…

I count myself to be very very lucky to have had such a full and fabulous weekend and am not sure how I will be able to thank Maria and her friends (they are all such lovely and genuine people) for putting up with me this weekend, my bad Spanish, for them speaking English, my attempt at climbing the mountain and hopefully redeeming myself in my own territory – whilst diving…!! I realise how far my Spanish has to go to as the hardest situation to be in really is conversation between a group of friends as they all speak sooo fast it is very hard to keep up… I have a LOT to learn in sooo many ways…!!