Here is a report of my weekend diving on the Costa Brava, Catalonia in Spain.
I had a business trip to company headquarters in Barcelona that was covering a weekend, and since some of my colleagues there were divers it seemed sensible to bring my dive gear.
On arrival in Barcelona I did a quick Google check to find out what dive shops were nearby my hotel, there was one within 15 mins walk
(Raya's Diving) so I paid them a visit. This was not really what I would call a dive shop, very little in the way of merchandize and not surprising as there is a huge dive warehouse not far away in Girona with unbeatable prices, but they did organize dive trips to Tossa de Mar just up the coast with transport from the dive shop on weekend mornings.
Since my colleague Maxi had not yet confirmed anything I told the person there that I was interested and may possibly join them, explaining they were in fact Plan B and was not yet committing.
Plan A was with Maxi, and that changed from a Saturday dive to a Sunday dive, and I called the dive shop to confirm that I would be joining them, however Pablo (the guy who I met earlier) told me that their transport was leaving on Friday night for a night dive and that I would have to take alternative transport on Saturday, he recommended a bus.
Now I have never travelled with my dive gear on a bus before, plus I had my housing with camera, strobes , etc., that I normally have all set up prior to leaving, so using public transport was going to be a bit of a challenge. I checked with the taxi driver that brought me back to my hotel on Friday evening and he calculated €150 one way, way too much.
I then toyed with an idea of renting a car, and the concierge at the hotel informed me that the bus was nonstop to Tossa de Mar and cost only €12.50 one way (taxi to the bus station was €5). I sorted out my gear with the housing in my Pelican case with port and camera installed, all that was required was to attach the arms and strobes when I reached the dive shop.
I tried to book my bus ticket online with SARFA (the bus company) as I wanted to take the 0745 bus which would get me into Tossa de Mar at 0900, but either something wrong with my connection or their website, it was not possible, I would need to go to the bus station and buy the ticket online.
The next morning I was up at 0600, went to the hotel restaurant to find it closed! I checked with reception and they informed me that breakfast started at 0700 on weekends. Well I was not leaving without a full stomach so I had a quick breakfast and took a taxi to the bus station at 0730 which took less than 10 mins only to find that the ticket office did not open until 0800.
I took the 0815 bus and arrived at 0930. I immediately called the dive shop and spoke to the owner Francisco and he gave me directions to the dive shop, which was only 10 mins walk. I arrived to see people gearing up on the pavement (sidewalk), something I had not experienced since I lived in Jeddah, but the sea was nowhere to be seen!
I quickly located Pablo and within 10 mins I had my camera sorted out and then connected my BC and regulator to a 15L steel tank with 70 bar in it. A few mins later another tank with a DIN fitting was located with 200 bar and I was good to go.
There was a van being used to shuttle divers from the shop to the beach and I was now in the third batch along with a dive guide Alex. Once at the beach we walked through the mass of people lying sunbathing but there was a clear path that was specifically for divers to follow.
I walked into the water I put on my fins and was good to go, but I then observed that my fellow divers in the group were not so comfortable managing this task. The guy I was buddied with was struggling and even though I manage to do this easily on my own with a housed SLR plus trimmings, the others appeared to be clueless. It was then I realised I was with a group of newbies, and it was impossible for me to know this beforehand as most of them actually did not speak English, and I did not see them gear up earlier.
The cold water hit my face immediately (19C – which is cold for me as I am currently more used to 27/28C back in UAE at the moment), the next thing I noticed was the amazing visibility .... at least 20M, a very nice surprise, I could have shot wide angle very easily but I was geared up with my 60mm micro lens hoping to find some nudis.
The dive guide was kept quite busy paying attention to specifically one couple, and whilst I was busy looking for some subjects to photograph and wishing I had fitted a wide angle lens, I noticed that my buddy (Julian) was unaware of the need to put air in his BCD. Every time he stopped swimming he sank to the bottom where he rested until I had photographed a subject, and with much destruction of the local visibility he got moving again as I approached him.
I tried to indicate to put air in his BC but he failed to understand this “Gringo” concept so I left him to his own devices, but fair play to him he was never far away when I was photographing something, so at least he understood the buddy system.
The topography of this site was very interesting though, lots of rocky outcrops with a sandy bottom and interesting nooks and crannies and my maximum depth was around 20M. Fish life however was not so abundant, and I am sure that given my own guide I could have had a more interesting dive as I was informed that there were areas where sea horses are found.
The van brought fresh tanks for the second dive and took Julian away. My replacement buddy was Carles, and he actually knew how to dive, which was a relief. The second dive however was a repeat of dive one, which at least gave me another opportunity to photograph a yellow blenny that I found on the first dive.
Afterwards we returned to the dive center and rinsed off my camera and packed my dive gear as I opted not to do the third dive, preferring to warm up a bit and have something to eat at the cafe next door. Later Francisco and Pablo gave me a lift back to Barcelona where I left my dive bag in the bath overnight for the next day. Cost for the two guided shore dives was I recall about $50 including tanks and weights.
The next morning my colleague Maxi picked me up fairly late (in my book) at 0930 and we headed off to Llafranc to
Triton Diving, and another pavement gearing up but this one was a bit more private.
Once again the gear was put in a van but we had to walk down to the harbour where we boarded one of two boats.
The first dive was six of us on a RIB, and we headed to the Canyons where Maxi and I had a decent dive down to 25M in an amazing underwater structure of long fingers of rocks and canyons. A large group of barracuda swam by at one point, but apart from that not much in the way of fish life. Down the sides of the rocks there was a lot of greenish yellow soft corals and good enough visibility for some wide angle, but I was looking for nudibranchs.
Eventually Maxi found one near the end of the dive, which was limited to 50 mins.
We returned to Llafranc and had lunch before heading out for a second dive on the RIB with an additional two divers making a total of eight, plus their larger boat accompanied us to the same dive site.
Mark, the captain made sure Maxi and I got off first and in within a few mins Maxi had spotted the first of several nudis we found on this dive, and again we encountered another shoal of barracuda. There was also a current at this site and we had fun drifting then moving into fissures with calm water, a really enjoyable dive, and like the previous dive we were last back to the boat.
What I missed was Nitrox, all of the dives were on air and I could have used EAN32 on the first dive at the Canyons to have a longer dive at the 25-30M range. Water temperatures ranged between 19-22C, fortunately I had brought my 7mm semi-dry and had no issues, although I will most likely bring my dry suit on my next visit in late November.
Price for two boat dives was approximately $77, and Llafranc is definitely a place I intend to return to a some stage and hopefully spend a few days there. The people at Triton Diving are very welcoming and the sort of outfit I like to dive with