Diving - El Hierro

We woke early at 6.45am and had to leave for La Restinga by 7.30am as we had arranged some diving at La Restinga and it was an hour’s drive. It was dark when we woke and light was not evident until 7.15am. It was a quiet morning and we had a quick breakfast and nothing moved as we went to our car. We had loaded our car with our dive equipment the night before, so we were all ready to go.

 The sun began to gradually come up as we drove and the dark brown landscape gradually began to look more attractive and the cacti and green shrubs were reaching out for the light. We arrived at La Restinga about 8.25am and went in search of a coffee Nothing appeared to be open although luckily we did find one and everyone seemed to be there chatting away. Following the coffee, we went to the dive center and sorted out our kit. I had my own wetsuit and could use by BCD (buoyancy control device), but I could not use my octopus as it would not fit their tanks. As we were to do two dives it made sense to use their tanks. Mark could use his octopus and BCD and we both had our own mask, snorkel and flippers. Mark borrowed a wet suit.

They loaded up the gear into vans and we were told to go to the port. It was not clear where we were to go and we saw the van with our gear on the other side of the port, so we walked over there only to see a dive boat leave. We thought they had gone without us but within 20 minutes others came with our dive boat. There were 8 if us and 3 divers, two of which were helpers really. 

Mark and I were a bit nervous as we were rusty and although we had done a refresher course in the UK, we had not done a proper dive for years. The instructor gave a briefing in Spanish and one of the helpers spoke good English and translated. The first issue was whether we could actually do the wetsuits up and with a bit of help and sucking in tummies etc we managed it!!. We then had to put on our BCD’s which now had a cylinder attached and we checked pressures etc and then we had to sit on the side of the boat and go off backwards. We checked the regulator, and we were able to breathe.

The water was clear and we could see the buoy to which the boat was attached and how its line went to the bottom. The instructor told us to stay close to him. The others seemed to be quite experienced divers with all the gear.

We descended – you do this for those who have not scuba dived this is done by releasing the air out of your BCD and breathing out and swimming down. This can be tricky as it depends if you have enough weights in your BCD, but the idea is that you descend and you then try to level off at a depth and you do this by breathing and if necessary put a bit of air in the BCD or take more out. Good divers easily do this, but I had to fiddle around a bit. Mark was very good at this. You then start to swim but flat and the instructor folds his arms and uses his legs and effortlessly propels himself along. I need more practise and do use my arms and stayed reasonably close to him. I also have to remember to keep breathing and not hold my breath and to clear my ears. 

We continued the dive and carried on down following the bottom and it was mainly rock (lava) with weed and plants growing on them. There were also lots of fish of different types and colours and sizes. I was breathing away and telling myself this is ok, but I knew that if you go below 10m that you have to equalise/ stay at 3-6 m for about 3-5 minutes before you can come to the surface. Every now and then I felt like going up but knew this would be silly, so I told myself to carry on. We had to tell the instructor when the air got to 120 which I did – and he kept an eye on me. After a while he gave me his spare regulator and I swam with him by my holding his arm. I think I must have been breathing too fast and deeply. I thought oh dear but knew I had to stick with it and calm down and not panic. My last dive in the Maldives had been a bad experience for me and I needed to get some confidence. I stuck with it and continued with the instructor and we came to what looked like a reed bed of sand with reeds every foot or so. As we got closer it was clear these were worms and disappeared into their burrows in the sand. The dive continued and went back to the rocks and under a rock arch and through some ravines. It was great viewing and the fish life was great, but I kept thinking when are we going to see the boat again? It came eventually and I was told to go up and it was good to see the surface and the boat and get on board.

Mark did very well and enjoyed it. We chatted and he had felt nervous initially but got into it. Mark’s diving watch computer said that the dive had been 41 minutes and the deepest depth was 27m.

 We rested and then moved the boat to another area where there was to be a second dive. I was not so sure about this but the maximum depth was 10m and so I knew if I wanted to come up at any time I could and not to have to worry about waiting for a number of minutes before surfacing. I told myself that you are here now and when will you get an opportunity like this. I therefore decided to give it a whirl and off we went again following a similar entry to the water as before, but I had a new cylinder of air.

We descended to the bottom and I could see the water above. We went on a circular dive round a whole series of rocks and gulleys and the fish life was amazing. They seem to accept that you are there and swim round you. I saw a purple moray eel, a sea type snake which the instructor touched (not me) and some large grouper fish asleep on the rocks. Although I was still a bit nervous I carried on and put my worries out of my head as far as I could. Eventually we returned to the boat and this time the dive was 55 minutes and the maximum depth 10 minutes. I was very glad I had done it, but I need to do some more dives like that to build confidence. Mark seemed to be fine which was good. 

We returned to the Harbour and to the dive center, with our gear being taken by van. We showered and were offered a small beer They recommended a restaurant for lunch (as it was 3.00pm by now) called El Refigio – the refuge. Yes we needed a good lunch after what we had done. Mark and I reflected and we were really glad we had done these dives even though it certainly pushed me a bit out of my comfort zone. When will we get a chance like this again in such a lovely location. We had calamares, prawns and fresh fish which was delicious.

We returned to the boat to prepare to retrace our footsteps and back to Gan Canaria again which we will do in a day -about 120 nm. We have now been to all the Canary Islands and will reflect on them over the next few days.

 If you have any questions, comments, suggestions – do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com