Farne Islands 2006
by Aleš

The trip to Farne Islands was my first UK diving experience and despite the fact that I was the only one wearing a wetsuit and it was bloody cold (it was the beginning of summer and 10°C), I enjoyed it a lot. Fiona did a great job organising the trip as well as being my buddy and guiding me on my way through English waters.

The diving was good and I would describe it as the real thing to those who have only been in warm waters: we got to use all our buddy checks; it was windy, sometimes foggy; even though the water was not too deep the diving was still challenging with currents, a few drifts and using the DSMB at the end of the dive (something I’d never done before).

The main thing we were there for, the seals, were far too lazy to join us below the water surface regularly (although some of the group spotted them on a few occasions). We could still observe them together with plenty of puffins and other sea birds on all of the islands. The colony of seals in the Farne Islands counts about 3500 members and the skipper suggested we come back towards the end of the summer when the new-born pups lose their shine and all they do is play with the divers.

We had a great time apres-dive time too. Lee took us on an interesting tour around the 19th century renovated castle of Bamburgh, with Alan we saw the ways Christianity came into England through the Lindisfarne in the ninth century and we travelled as far north as you can get in England to have look on the lovely town of Berwick-upon-Tweed!
All the evenings were spent with very good food and interesting talks in local pubs and I believe that all of us had a great time (I definitely did).
Thank you to all the great people taking part in this trip for making my first UK diving experience so special and pleasant. I’ll see you on another GLUG trip soon.