Welcome
I write to you from the shores of southern Cornwall , where I have been diving with friends at Porthkerris Dive Centre on the Lizard peninsula . It ’ s part of UK diving folklore , Porthkerris , and is practically unique in offering accommodation , camping , shore and boat diving all from one idyllic location . [ I am mindful of two centres in Scotland with comparable facilities ].
Arguments over dive centres notwithstanding , my journey to the south west has proven as illuminating as it has been enjoyable . I started the trip a guest of Burntwood BSAC , diving out of the Mountbatten Centre in Plymouth . We visited the venerable James Eagan Layne and the relatively youthful Scylla , now festooned in pale Alcyonium digitatum soft corals , pink fan coral and pretty tufts of hydroids .
The viz was eight metres , approaching ten in places , so pale green light was flooding in through the jagged ribs that still criss-cross the hull of the ageing James . Then we visited the fish-packed boilers of the Glen Strathallan and made friends with a school of bib and a lone cuttlefish patrolling the debris field . There was a visit to one of the local gullies , which proved less productive , but an enjoyable bimble nevertheless .
Plymouth was great , but the Cornish segment of our trip was made all the more enjoyable for the fact that Porthkerris has everything in one spot , bar a venue to eat in the evenings . It ’ s huge work for the team who live and work there , but all the visitors clearly adore the place , for the convenience as much as the beauty of the setting .
As much as we relish the challenge of exped-style diving , sometimes we just want to go somewhere beautiful and let someone else find the wreck . Let them drive the boat ... and the tractor with the wheeled beach pontoon , for that matter .
If you were to start a diving resort in the UK – offering all services , accommodation and meals – where would you set it up ? West Cornwall , somewhere beyond Penzance ? An island in the Scillies , or some sheltered part of Orkney ? Surely , if you build it ‘ they ’ will come ...
Cover photo : Grey seal pup at Lundy Island , by Simon Rogerson
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