Dan's Adventure

A selection of my favourite photos that I have taken whilst diving this year.

A turtle eating coral. Egypt, October 2011.

Long nosed hawkfish hiding in coral. Egypt, October 2011.

Batfish. Egypt, October 2011.

Blue spotted stingray. Egypt, October 2011.

Nudibranch. Borneo, April 2011.

Lionfish. Mabul, April 2011.

White tip reef shark. Sipadan, April 2011.

Starfish. Egypt, January 2011.

Cuttlefish. Gran Canaria, March 2011
The photos from Egypt in October were taken with a Canon S95 in a FIX housing with a FIX UWL-04 Fisheye lens and a INON S2000 strobe. The rest were taken with a Panasonic Lumix TZ7 …

I think its fair to say that scuba diving really has taken over this year. Every holiday I’ve been on has been focussed on diving and almost every weekend during the summer was spent diving somewhere on the South coast of England. Its been a very varied year. From the first dive of the year in January whilst on a liveaboard in Egypt to the last – a cold December day diving in Plymouth.

The turning point was joining two London based dive clubs, Big Squid and Clidive, both of which …

When most people think about scuba diving they picture crystal clear water, hot sun, exotic locations and colourful fish. Until March that was what I thought of too, but then I decided that I would like to dive most weekends and unfortunately I don’t have the time or the money to fly off to some far flung place for a weekend, so I started looking towards diving closer to home. For the last year I’ve been living in London, so I thought I should investigate the cold, dark, murky world …

Last weekend I found myself in Gran Canaria visiting family so took the opportunity to get a few dives in. The El Cabron marine park is reputed as having some of the best dive sites in Gran Canaria and Davy Jones Diving dive their daily.

A ten minute drive south of Las Palmas airport is Arinaga which is where Davy Jones Diving are based. The diving in El Cabron would be my first experience of shore diving, all my previous dives have been from boats, so I was excited about this …

The water is crystal clear and the beach is deserted, the only people around are those atop a nearby hill watching seals basking in the sun. The beach, composed of countless pieces of broken coral, glistens in the sun, which has made its only appearance of the day just as we arrived at Coral Beach. Its hard to believe that this beach is actually in Scotland. Normally when one thinks of Scottish beaches, images of Ayr or Aberdeen beach come to mind, neither of which I consider pleasant, never mind …

Neist Point is the most westerly point on Skye, giving excellent views of Moonen Bay, the cliffs of Hoe Rape, and across the Minch to Lewis and Harris.
A short walk from the end of the road, down the steep steps, leads to the lighthouse. The lighthouse is now privately owned and signs seemed to indicate that the buildings around it had at one time been open as a bed and breakfast. It did not however look like the lighthouse has been inhabited for quite some time. The rest of the …

Eilean Donan Castle is situated near Dornie on the main road to Kyle of Lochalsh, the gateway to Skye. The castle’s picturesque location on its own islet in Loch Duich has made it one of Scotland’s most filmed and photographed monuments. Over the years the castle has appeared in numerous films including Highlander, The World Is Not Enough and Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
I stopped off at the castle on my way to Skye on Friday, took the tour and learnt a little about its history. Upon arrival dark clouds above …

Between Kinlochleven and Fort William there is absolutely no where to stop for food or drink so before setting off on the final 14 miles of the West Highland Way I made sure to get some food for lunch and snacks to keep me going throughout the day. I should also have bought another bottle of water to take along as my Sigg bottle was empty about 3 hours before reaching Fort William.
The day began with a steep climb out of Kinlochleven affording great views over the village with the …