Diving in St Abbs

We went up to St Abbs last weekend on a diving trip - probably the last of the year before it gets too cold and rough for me to go giving in my semi-dry… We drove up on Friday in our new, old car - a used Renault Megane Scenic. We thought the car was massive, but once we had loaded it with two sets of dive gear, cylinders, camping gear and the dog it didn’t seem so big anymore.

Fully laden we set off on our journey. We were hoping to get there with some daylight left, but unfortunately time was not on our side and it was pitch black when we got there at around 21:30. Some friends were already there with their tent up and cooking their dinner. We got the car shining some light on our pitch next to their’s at the Crosslaw camp site Louise found for us. They gave us a really big pitch and the facilities were good.

I have to say that the weather was absolutely amazing too - we had sun all weekend and on until Monday when we set off back home. The first days diving was pretty tough - the entry and exit is not that easy anywhere at low tide, and apparently these were some of the lowest tides for ten years or more. Once in the water it was great though and the best thing was that the visibility just got better and better each day.

I managed to snap a few really beautiful photos both above and below the water. I had a really hard time picking out a few for this post. I got my sixtieth dive in on the Sunday morning where we did a really nice long dive off the beach with quite a group of us out. Saw a really weird fish but forgot my camera and so couldn’t photograph it, but we never spotted the elusive wolf fish.

It was a great weekend and just goes to show how beautiful the UK coast line is when most are trying to jet off abroad for their diving fix! I will certainly be on the lookout for some more UK based diving. Admittedly I do have a week away in Hurghada, Egypt booked for the end of January coinciding with my 27th birthday! Hopefully it won’t be too long until we get back out in the sea (I fear it will be next year now though).

Best get back to thesis writing now…

Update: Photos from our trip are here if you would like to look at any of them.