Havania

It was amazing to be back on Crete after 21 years! It was going to be great to explore some new places, see the wildlife and snorkel in clear blue water, and get some sun. The day before in Bristol it was raining heavily as usual, there were big puddles everywhere, and it was gloomy and awful. We arrived in Heraklion, stepping out of the aircraft to be bathed in warmth and sunshine; after negotiating the airport etc, we had a pleasent ride over to Agios Nikolaos and got sorted out at our hotel the Lito - which was perfect btw.

The Lito was on a hill just above Havania beach, which as it turned out, was a pretty good place for snorkelling with some shallow reefy ledges and rocky headland close by. I woke up early, gatherered my snorkelling bits and pieces together and was in the water about 7am to make the most of quiet swim.

I went out and around the rocks to the south of Havania Beach toward the Mirabello Hotel. The visibility was great and there were lots of small colourful fish. I didn't know any of their names and I was seeing them for the first time but there were banded/saddled bream, cardinal fish, painted comber, decorated wrasse, salp, blennies, and a Moray. Amongst the various fish I still haven't identified were some tiny dark metallic blue ones. There were rounded black sponges (like the ones at home) and grey/green upright ones, and red sprawling ones in crevices and under overhangs etc,.. I also saw some red segmented worms, which I later found out were fireworms and not to be handled. There wasn't much weed as I'm used to seeing- there were patches of eel grass though, and off Havania I saw no crabs or sea anenomes.

The water very pleasant (I wore a rash vest anyway). Took pictures, some around the shallow ledges and wildlife amongst the rocks. The moray was brilliant. It was perhaps 2-3 feet long, and though seemed to be quite a young one, not as shy as I thought it would be. I was a little wary, and didn't like to go in too close and disturb it, but got a couple of pictures and reckoned he was quite friendly looking. On the way back I saw an old boat keel. I used the beach shower to rinse off my kit, and went back up the hotel refreshed and happy for breakfast.

What did we do that day? - er - after breakfast we walked into town. On the way I enquired about diving at the Crete Underwater Centre (by good fortune just a 10 min walk down the road). We enjoyed ourselves pottering around Ag Nik. and stocked up on cold drinks.

After bit of a rest back at the hotel, we got up and went down to the beach for an evening snorkel before dinner. There was a small amount of choppiness (though our location was very sheltered) and Yas felt a bit queasy swimming. She got to see some fish anyway and seemed to like these. I took some more pictures and although there was not as much variety as this morning, it very enjoyable and out in front of the rocks, say in water 4-5 m deep over the sea-bed, the visibility was at least 10 metres.