Despite being qualified for a long time, and diving all over the world, my first club trip with iDive was also my first time diving our more local UK coast.
The North Norfolk coast is home to wrecks, Europe’s longest chalk reef, and steep shingle beaches, giving a really good introduction to UK diving. The group travelled for 5 days, and overall carried out 8 of the 10 planned dives – two being missed because of the waves and swell.
Although the group was split into 3 main locations – with camping and hostels provided accommodation – in the evenings we all got together in a pub, giving people the option to sleep where comfortable yet still have a good fun evening.
The diving was challenging but fantastic. After more technical entries carrying equipment over loose shingle beaches than I’d ever experienced, and then fighting the waves and swell to get into the water, the reefs opened up to > 6m visibility, beautiful colourful algal communities and marine life such as lobsters, Cromer crab, Velvet Swimming crab and even some larger fish.
The shallow depths of these reefs really lets the colours pop, and the dives last for over an hour.
Overall, it was a fantastic introduction to UK diving and was great to get to know more members of the club, and make new friends. Thank you to Karl for organising the trip, and I can’t wait for my next one!
