Cuttlefish at Babbacombe - April 06
‘We usually only take couples and families luv’, said the woman behind the desk at the campsite.
Do I really look like the sort of person who is going to run amok round the campsite in the middle of the night drunk/shouting/shooting up drugs or whatever else single people on camp sites do! Smiling sweetly whilst thinking the former I said, ‘well I’m sure I wont be a problem’.
And so my first diving weekend of the year started at Babbacombe.
The following morning the next problem to overcome was the fact that I had accumulated so much adipose tissue over the winter that I had trouble getting into my dry suit. Having eventually managed to get the suit up and over the huge expanse that was where my hips once were,….. I do hope that one day I will see them again…… it was then a two man job to actually get the suits zip done up, this daunting task was undertaken with fierce determination by Dave and Andrew. Although I had tried to stretch out the new seals on the neck and one wrist they were still tight and by the time I was fully kitted up my mobility was severely limited
Babbcombe is a great location for shore diving with everything a diver needs. Reasonable sized parking spots for spreading kit out, takeaway café right next to this selling all types of food essential for divers to survive the cold murky depths of the sea, burgers, chips, hot sausage rolls etc accompanied by large ‘real china’ mugs of hot chocolate.
The first dive was a disaster with a lost fin, flooding mask, painful ears, under weighted etc etc., but then as I told myself this is why you’ve come on a nice easy shore dive, to break yourself back in and that’s what it nearly did! When I eventually managed to make it into the water on the second dive we did actually see cuttlefish, which is what I had been hoping very much to see. Although my first attempts at ‘green’ photography with this camera were pretty grim I hope I will be able to return later in the year to have another go.
I didn’t dive the second day. Whilst struggling out of my dry suit I pulled a muscle in my shoulder, not only did it give me a wakeful night everytime I rolled over onto it, but the next morning it was painful to lift my arm.
So the moral of this little outing is…… don’t sit at home eating chocolate and fiddling around on the computer all winter because your drysuit will be too tight in the spring!
Few more pics
Babbacombe - May 06
