Who's complaining? Not me. Fantastic weather, great (mixed agency) company and most of all a thoroughly relaxed feel to the whole 6 days. Yep, 6 days of wild camping and diving.
I arrived (as usual) a day early at the campsite I call Forest Road End (there's a hardcore track that leads...nowhere up into the former forest) and set up the camp by the shingle beach with wind breaks and timber for the campfire (as Ray Mears said, more than once, it ain't a campsite unless you have a fire going).
Such an idyllic evening, sitting by the fire listening to the nearby woodpeckers drilling away for food and in the distance two Cuckoos making their presences known, I didn't bother with an evening dive but contented myself to the peace and (relative) quiet and stillness of these wonderful surroundings.
Later, once the crossword was done and it became too dark to read, it was time to watch that ancient predecessor of the TV, the night sky. Out here in the sticks there's very little light polution and far more stars become apparent in the sky. There's still a glow in the sky in the NW even after the sun has long gone to bed, but keeping your eyes away from this area the sky simply lights up. Numerous shooting stars and satellites, which sometimes seemed to be on collision courses with the stars, and an occasional meteorite shooting across the sky at a low trajectory then simply disappearing in what must be a miriad of tiny pieces as the atmosphere proves too hard for it to hit the ground in large chunks (thankfully!).
The morning of the main reason for this timely escape (the Royal Wedding) and after a healthy breakfast and some more wood gathering, it was time for a dip.
No need to drive anywhere, this campsite sits in a little bay that affords 3 distinctly different dives all from the same spot.
I chose to simply head straight out from the stream bed and fin out to one of the low bedrock reefs where I know there's a good selection of sealife. Tall seapens abound out here, as do the gorgeous Fireworks anemones amongst other life such as seasquirts, featherstars, Queen Scallops, most crabs including those hermits carrying the Cloak anemone, during the true summer months there's loads of nudibranchs having dinner on the cnidarians (coryphella nutans) where they also lay their eggs.
On the way back, after ascending the gentle sandy slope which ends at the steeper, small boulder rocks and staying at 7-8m I came across something unusual amongst the Kelp. A mask that had dropped out of a buddy's pocket several months earlier at this spot. You might recall a search of the area being carried out on that same weekend, for the DSMB which also had fallen out, but with no luck then. The mask, although having been nibbled a bit on the outer seal was still in good condition and will, apparently, continue to be used as her back-up (unless it falls out again...
).Marion was the next to arrive at base later that morning, and, after sorting out kit we had another bimble in the same bay, this time heading East along the slope in the vain hope of finding the DSMB, but once again, it proved elusive. Ah well, sometime...maybe.
Viz in the bay was great, after you got thro' the plankton layer, which was so thick with large plankton it is possible to see some forms! Water is still only around 9-10degrees but once you ascend into the warmer 5m layer it does warm up significantly. Still makes for a chilly time of it tho' especially as the air temp was way over 19degrees even in the shade.
Lindsay and Alistair arrived about 5pm, and once again after putting up their tents, opted for a quick dip in the same bay, whilst I got on and prepared tea for us all, Thai Chilli scallops and (Lindsay's) Egg noodles. Nice and warming fodder, perfect for dinner after a chilly dive (as you'll see next!).
Alistair came out absolutely soaked, as he had done at Duich a couple of weeks earlier. This time tho' it wasn't the worn areas on his suit, or his loose neck seal (I had repaired each of these problems in time for this trip) but we found his Apeks Dump valve had jammed open and since it had been glued in place (by a previous owner...) we couldn't replace it with one of my spares. Nevermind, I had brought my spare suit which, after a wee bit of fettling in the shoe area, suited him down to the ground so he used that for the rest of the week.
