Kinlochbervie or bust
Finally after 5 years of trying dates and been offered places I’ve made it, 6am and we are off on the 9 hour journey to the back of beyond, Kinlochbervie (KLB), in Scotland.
Many people stop off overnight and have a dive on the way. We decided on the road trip version. Heading up the M6 and then onto the M74 and M8 we passed through the Edinburgh/Glasgow gap and finally turned onto the roads heading to Perth with the countryside becoming more rugged and stunning as we progressed north towards Inverness. Beyond Lairgs, the road became a single track with passing places every few hundred yards.
This is the ‘Visit Scotland’ link to KLB, for location purposes.
https://www.visitscotland.com/info/towns-villages/kinlochbervie-p243981
The eight arrived at the accommodation in dribs and drabs and settled in. The house consisted of four twin rooms a comfortable lounge, two shower/toilets and a fully equipped kitchen. Chris and Cathy came round and gave us a full briefing about the routines and rules for the accommodation, the harbour and the boat, after which we settled down to talk diving and journeys.
The first two days diving were in the loch, due to a strong swell and wind. To some it may seem disappointing but all four dives were stunning. It is quite amazing how a loch wall can change so dramatically in the space of 300m. While there was not as much fish life the plethora of Nudibranchs was amazing at one safety stop we decided to stay until we counted 100 it took less time than the safety stop!
Cathy joined us on the dives leaving Chris to skipper the boat and soon team Cathy, Joanna and Paul became the nudibranch champions. I couldn’t tell you the latin names but Cathy and Joanna could and found many. The main excitement was finding the much talked about black nudibranch. Their photos were excellent.
On the third day we headed out of the loch towards a wall on Roin Island, one of the many small islands dotted around the coast. We completed two dives at different sections. This one proved to have more fish life than the lochs and a different topography with it being open to the Atlantic forces.
Sheigra Arch was a wonderful dive. We descended to the arch directly from the boat using a negative buoyancy decent in order to hit the pinnacle. Keeping the wall to our right we swam round at 18 meters and after a couple of minutes the arch loomed up in front of us. From there we searched the boulder strewn sea bed for marine life until ascending.
The final day was wind affected but we steamed round to Loch Laxford for another stunning wall dive before rounding the week off with a dive on a wreck simply named Cannon and Anchor. This is reckoned to be an Armada wreck and was investigated by the Time Team in 2019 (link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tMvBNWeuPg).
The final evening had arrived, what better way to celebrate a good weeks diving than at the local restaurant, The Old School House. A great finish to the week with good Scottish based meals.
Only the 9 hour journey back, but it was worth it. Our thanks to Chris and Cathy for hosting the weeks diving.
The weeks dive sites in order
- Eileen Dubh
- Mhill Bain
- Inchard wall 1
- Inchard wall 3
- Roin Island (south) 1
- Roin Island (south) 2
- Sheigra Arch
- Dubh Sgeir
- Loch Laxford
- Canon and anchor
Dive KLB website
https://www.northeastdive.co.uk
