Cornwall, England by David Balmforth

Hi,

I have just come back from a weekend at Porthkerris, Cornwall. All in all it was a good weekend with some good diving.

Five of us went on the trip, the idea was to camp and dive. Booking the dives and the camping was nice and easy, one phone call and it was sorted.

The drive down was better than expected considering that it was the weekend before the eclipse. Finding Porthkerris was a bit of a challenge, but hey, we had all day...

When we arrived the booking in was smooth, go to the dive shop, sign the waiver and safe diving practice forms, and your done. If you are booked on their dive shuttle you will be given a ticket and told the timings. Air is paid for by way of another ticket, you pay £10 for a ticket which entitles you to 5 fills, these are then ticked off on your ticket as you use them, any unused fills can be refunded (tanks can be left at a collection point on the beach, they are then taken away, pumped and returned or you can take them to the compressor yourself).

The camp site (this is the downside of the weekend) was really just a field. The Toilet and shower block was by the beach, some quarter of a mile away, down a steep track, no bins for the rubbish and no water standpipes.

Now on to the diving. we dived the eastern side of the house reef on the Friday evening. The vis was poor for this area, about 4mtrs, but still a good dive. there was a large amount of fish life and even a couple of Cuttlefish.

Saturday took us out on the shuttle to Vase reef, a ten minute boat ride from the beach. Vis here was better at about 6-7mtrs. The reef top was about 6mtrs and the bottom at 40 ish mtrs. We planned to dive to 25mtrs on the NE side of the reef, once below the Kelp line at 14-15mtrs the rock faces were covered in dead mans fingers and colourful corals with the usual fish, Ballan/Cuckoo/Corkwing Wrasse, Pollock etc. in attendance as well. Although we did not see any, other buddy pairs found Dog fish and Lobsters.

Saturday afternoon took us back to the house reef, but this time diving the western side, another nice dive, all the usual criminals...

Saturday night the wind blew with vengeance from the east, I and others spent the night repegging your tents....mmmm that was fun..

Sunday's diving was blown out, we had planned the Volney for the morning and a reef for the afternoon, but it was not to be, so it was into the restaurant for a full fried breakfast (club rule..if you can't dive, eat).

The drive back to Surrey was as uneventful as the drive down (about 6-7hrs each way)

Dive centre details:
ACTION DIVERS PORTHKERRIS -- LAND & SEA SPORTS Porthkerris, St. Keverne, HELSTON, Cornwall, England, UK. TR12 6QJ, Telephone: 01326 280620

-- David

"A safe dive is no accident"

Last Edited: June 29, 2002