Babbacombe (night dive)

Pefkos to Lardos

Pefkos to Lardos

I was starting to wake up (about 6:20am) when suddenly the entire room began to shake (fairly violently). It was an earthquake. The tremors of the main shock seemed to last 5-10 seconds, accompanied by a loud rumbling noise; then there were lighter trembles dying away. Was going to go back to sleep and the fire alarm went off and the building was evacuated onto the beach - where we waited until it was ok for us to go back in (wondered what it would have felt like under water).

In the day we went to Petaloudes ('Butterfly Valley' - they're moth's actually, but Valley of the Moth's would sound a bit creepy I suppose), then to Ancient Kameiros. Later found out the earthquake magnitude was 6.3.

Got ready for a night snorkel around the reefs in front of the hotel. Nice warm night, water fine. Lots of wildlife, but fish less noticable (and no wrasse). Sand eels and small silver fish close in over the sand, and over the reef soon found a frilly orange nudibranch, then an octopus. Wedged in rocks, an orange nudibranch and squat lobster(?) Also found a very big fireworm, far bigger than they're supposed to get, a few scorpion fish, blennys, sand gobies, stripy fish (but not a comber), also a very small cuttlefish.

Havania

I'd been thinking about doing a night snorkel for some time and was usually way too tired, but managed it one early morning. I had woken up at about 3am, and couldn't get back to sleep because the toothbrush recharger was flashing (I 'suppose' I could have unplugged it). Anyway it occurred to me that it would be a good time for a swim, so I put on my boots and rash vest and the camera, torch, and knife went in the goody bag. I quietly left the hotel and headed down to the beach. At the top of the driveway I could see another night snorkeller or diver further out in the bay.

It felt a bit strange at first, and I was glad that I'd swum around here before and knew what to expect. There were lights on the shore and navigation wasn't going to be a problem. Visibility was good and my backup dive torch perfect for this sort of thing. The first fish I saw were small silver fish hanging, here and there, just below the surface. Then, very near me I noticed a needlefish. I swam on around the headland and, and on the rocks there were occasional sea cucumbers (cotton spinners). These ones were a bit different, brown and spiny (they were a bit like our nearly black ones) and had fairly evenly spaced white spots about some of the spines. I carried on, and very soon I found a moray (or 'the' moray, as it could have been the same one I saw last week).

Swimming around there were more of the small silver fish, then as it started to get light I saw others. A school of grey mullet in bit of feeding frenzy over some rocks in the shallows, saddled bream, decorated wrasse, more needlefish, and lots of blennies; perhaps some of these had been there all along.

I took a few pictures and on the way back and had a look in some of the hollows, where I found a nice red fan worm, and there were some nice plants. After a while I felt a bit cool. It wasn't cold but I was glad to have the rash vest, which during the day kept the sun off my back and saved me getting burnt. There was of course a wonderful sunrise, and a few early people arriving at the beach - the best time of day. I spoke to a few people as I cleaned off, and a friendly local suggested bread to attract lots of fish. It was a great swim and I was very pleased.