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ednesday April 23, 2014: Illes Medes: two dives on the islands
Yes, great, diving! I already had done one dive in The Netherlands this year, but that was mainly to just get the equipment checked before I came here. We meet downstairs at the hotel. Everything is arranged pretty professional when storage is needed. When it relates to information what needs to be done, I receive little to no info. I need to ask the instructors everything. Earlier we had a quick breakfast and now I’m just waiting for information. So I go to someone of the diving centre and try to find out more. All equipment needs to be loaded to a small van and then we need to walk to the boat. Luckily a French guy is helping out, so I follow his lead and we’ll see where we get to: hopefully close to the boat. I quickly say goodbye to Evy and Arne and then we walk for about twenty minutes to the harbour. Along the beach and then to the harbour and then we stop half way because there are more divers present. One of the instructors asks me if it’s OK that I dive with him for the first dive: yeah, sure no problem. He’s accompanying a French family and we’ll be diving together. According to the short information I receive, it will be a shallow dive and not too long. We leave immediately and after less than ten minutes we’re at the diving spot. I forgot the name at this moment, b
ut I’ll ask later on.
Everybody is ready and we can start the dive. During our briefing the instructor told us it will be pretty simple: from the boat an underwater rock, keeping the wall on our left hand side and when turning back the other way around. Indeed, nice and easy. I notice immediately that the visibility is not so good: there are floating things in the water and that causes some dust, but I’m not complaining: the visibility is fifteen meters. Because I’m used to The Netherlands, this is ridiculously good. We just diving like a train behind the instructor and he takes us in the right direction. After five minutes we already see the first bass and many more will follow here. There are many small fish that are rapidly moving. Those are small blennies, the long striped blenny and the black-faced blenny. The nice part is that these species are beautiful, but they appear and disappear very quickly, when coming closer with the camera. Then the instructor shows us a moray eel and then the first nudibranch: it’s rather a flatworm, but it doesn’t matter. The next nudibranch is spotted too; my dive is already a success. The leopard sea slug is a funny one: the white one with the brown stripes. We constantly dive along some kind of white plants, but I’m not 
really sure what they are. Half way during our dive we reach the rock that was discussed during the briefing and it’s indeed the same way back, only not so deep. I’m really having fun and am taking some pictures. I’m especially happy I have brought my dry suit, because the water here is only fourteen degrees, so pretty chilly. Our way back goes faster, because some divers in our group are getting cold and that’s not really remarkable. We pass a large rock where the anchor for the buoy is, dive five minutes further and then five back. We don’t spot anything special anymore, but I’m just enjoying myself. A large anemone, a type of coral and the small damselfish who are hanging over the rocks here: a beautiful view with the sunbeams gliding down through the water. A great start for diving and it lasted still a bit over fifty minutes.
Then we head back by boat, on foot, give everything a place in the storage room and then I go to our room: I’m very happy with this first dive: an easy one to tart with is always nice. We need to feed Arne and then we go and grab a bite too. We walk along the beach and have lunch at Gran Café, where they speak Dutch. Nice touch! We have a salad and drink something and then return to the hotel. I need to be 
back at the diving centre at two thirty and we’re well on time. First a quick stop in our room and then load everything on the truck and walk to the harbour where we can board the boat. It’s the second, better third time we take this walk and we’ll know this by the end of the day. This afternoon the instructor is not diving, so I’m diving together with two French ladies. The diving spot is Dofi Nord, because there is a bronze status of a dolphin at the end of a long tunnel, but we won’t reach it today. We receive a briefing, decide the three of us which part we’re going to dive and then we prepare everything to start our second dive of the day.
At the start one of the ladies has some problems to descend, but that is soon over and we dive towards the entrance of the tunnel, so back up a bit, because we were at nine metres and the entrance to the tunnel is at five metres depth: all the efforts to equalize for nothing. It doesn’t really matter because I took a fifteen litre tank this afternoon. We swim to the entrance and one of the ladies starts to look a bit in panic, not really cle
ar, but this means we’re not going through the tunnel. There is plenty of life to spot on this side too, so no problem at all. The first thing I see is a dahlia anemone, but I wanted to make sure I’m spotting nudibranchs, because also my two buddies wanted to spot nudibranchs. And yes, there is the first one already: a leopard sea slug, smaller than the one of this morning, but quite nice. We follow the wall at our right hand side and don’t dive deeper than fifteen metres and we take it very slowly. We see a beautiful swim through and it’s really great how the sun is playing on the reef here. A lonely bream is feeding from the ricks and we slowly continue our dive. We are mainly focused on nudibranchs and other small things. I spot a couple, really beautiful creatures, but the rest of the dive is not very special. We spot some corals, mainly red ones, really great. I continue the dive with Elyseée and Christelle, two nice divers who are not looking for depth and are interested in nudibranchs. That’s a great combination. In total we spot about five different species and the last one is the most beautiful one: a white body, yellow and white tentacles on the front and on the back purple-red with white-blue tips. A great find. Just before that I saw another dahlia anemone and a yellow anemone that was eating a nudibranch, also a strange sight. We again dive about fifty minutes and it’s almost at the end now. The dive is great, but tomorrow there are two more and hopefully the best still has to come.
We take our equipment off and talk about the dive, wait for the last divers to return and then we can leave. The trip to the harbour is very short and in less than ten minutes we’re there. Everything is loaded onto the truck, we walk back to the hotel and then store everything for tomorrow. I then return to the room to my two loved ones, talk about our day and especially the afternoon and what I saw during the dive and then it’s time to take a shower and a bath. I take Arne with me under the shower and then it’s time for his last meal of the day and we start to look for something to eat too. We don’t walk too far, only two blocks and there we find a great restaurant Villa Tascons and there we eat and have a drink. First we have a collection of local tapas and then I have scampi and Evy has mixed grill. During our vacation you need to do whatever you like. The lady of the restaurant explains to Evy there is a mercado tomorrow and that she needs to go and take a look. She’ll certainly do that tomorrow. We walk back to the hotel and then watch some TV and go to sleep. It’s getting late and tomorrow early morning I’ll be starting the day with another dive.
Thursday April 24, 2014: Illes Medes: Pedra de Deu and Medaillot
Pedra de Deu is a small island situated just at the northern point of the Meda Gran and descends in the shape of a pyramid covered with gorg
onians down to 40m. Most common species: Violescent sea-whip (Gorgonian), red coral, groupers, sea bream, congers.
Medallot it’s a dive with easy orientation. We will just go round the small island trying to perform an ascending spiral following the vertical walls. The most common species in the area: sea whips, red coral, invertebrates, lobsters, groupers, cow bream, sea bream and many blennies.
These are the two diving spots we’re visiting today: the first one before lunch, the second one in the afternoon, but I’m already going ahead of everything now. First thing today we wake up after a short night, especially for me, because since yesterday I have a cold, wake up in the middle of the night and then I can’t get to sleep again because of my sinuses and then I start thinking that I might not be able to dive today. It all took over an hour, so I don’t really get up relaxed. Try to relax and get a refreshing shower this morning and I hope everything will work out perfectly. I’ll explain to the guide that it can be difficult and I might need to end the dive early. But first there’s breakfast, prepare for the dive, load everything and then leave to the harbour. Now I don’t have any questions anymore, because everything is the same as yesterday, only the group I’m going with, is a different one. A large group of French divers who are causing a fuzz quite often. We walk to the harbour, now Evy and Arne join me, then we say goodbye for about two hours and I’ boarding the vessel and Evy and Arne are going to the market. After less than ten minutes we’re there and I’m diving with Olivier and Anna. They did not have a problem to take me with them. It turns out they’re already coming here for many years and have been diving here for many years too. The start is not so good, because I was seated too far away from them. When they’re already pr
epared, I still need to start. But everything is OK and we can start the dive.
The briefing had no real value for Olivier, because he knew the spot as good as the guide. We descend to about ten metres and then continue along the wall to the abyss. But first I already spot something. I’m thrilled when I see the dondice banyulensis, because this is one of the most beautiful nudibranchs here. Really magnificent: this dive is already now a huge success. Some translate it as Lady Godiva. In Dutch it’s known as Burning Fire. And indeed the nudibranch looks like that. Marvellous orange tips, really a great find. I really wanted to see this and so mission accomplished. Great. We then continue to deeper places and see some gorgonians, yellow and red ones. We see an octopus who shows the eyes and arms from a cavity. I’m already very happy. A couple of metres further Olivier sees a moray eel, again, great find. And then I see another species of a nudibranch: it’s really amazing, or is this just luck? This time it’s a blue one with yellow stripes: it is a great nature reserve to spot nudibranchs here. From this last species I even see two at the same time. The whole part of the dive we see damselfish and red basses eating and then we reach the gorgonians. Whow, what the hell is this. In the canyon at thirty metres depth, that continues to even forty, I see that both sides left and right and also the top side is overgrown with gorgonians. It’s difficult to describe, but it is 
so beautiful: I had no idea that the Mediterranean would supply with me this abundance. A magnificent view. The canyon is completely filled with them, you really need to pay attention where you dive and ensure you don’t hit one. It takes only three seconds to destroy one of thirty centimetres that needed as much years to become that big. I’m really thrilled I have seen this.
We’re below thirty metres now and our dive is already a while going on, so we don’t need to stay here too long. We swim towards the shallower rocks. We steadily dive shallower until about twenty metres and then see a scorpionfish. First spot this dive, so that’s nice. The fish is rather large: this is really an amazing dive. Between the rocks I spot some kind of crab, a dahlia anemone, a baby-nudibranch that I can’t identify. Then I see a red headed blenny, looks like a relative of the yellow version I saw. Super, great, amazing. We’re not swimming that deep any longer, so we are ending the dive. Or not. At about eight metres we see a huge bass, so we go and take a look. We go back down to the fish, then finish our safety stop and then go to the surface. It’s only a swim of ten metres to the boat and then we can straighten everything out and head back to the mainland. Again the same principle. Everything from the boat onto the truck and w
e walk back, drop everything off and then return to the room. The two Swiss are diving this afternoon too so I’m happy I can join them then too.
Arne is eating and when he’s finished we also have lunch. A small spaghetti bolognese with cola and mojito (that’s for Evy). After about an hour we’re done and return to the room. I rest a little bit, because I’m tired. The short break is good then I start preparing again for the fourth and last dive here. Go down to the diving centre, put all the gear on the truck, walk to the harbour and wait until the boat arrives. This time I’ve taken a seat closer to Olivier and Anna so we can start the dive at the same time. Everything goes well and we can start. We jump from the boat and descend, diving around a rock that is visible from the mainland: Medaillot is the name of the spot. The idea is to make a couple of turns around the rock and then come back to the surface. When we see some small anemones this means we’re at the correct side of the rock to find the boat easily. We received
a good explanation during the briefing and we start with the rock at our right hand side. We immediately descend to the deep, about thirty metres and then we start our first round. Or not. We stop close to a scorpionfish, the same as the one we saw this morning, I stop to spot a lobster, but I don’t have the time to show it to the other two, because otherwise they’re going to leave me behind. And that’s not what we want. We see plenty of gorgonians, not the size of this morning. Many nudibranchs or better flatworms, the blue one with the white strips and then brown one but they’re beautiful. We also look at the surface from time to time and then see the damselfish and the basses hanging alongside the rock, they look like small balls going with the flow. There is not a lot of current, so that’s very nice. On land and during the boat trip here there was quite some wind, but we notice nothing from that here during the dive.
And then there is again a nudibranch moment for me. A Flabelina ischitana is wrapped around a piece of algae with the purple body, the red tentacles and on top the white dots. Great, I spotted another species today. It’s really great what you can see here, especially nudi
branchs. I’ve never seen this in the Mediterranean Sea, not on Malta, not in Greece; these were the countries I had been diving earlier. Stop here for a couple of moments and then dive closer to my buddies. In a small cave I see a moray eel and because we’re located here it’s called the Mediterranean moray eel. We see the same kinds of coral and fish. And another moray eel and a tube worm. On one rock there are even five or six tubes next to each other. I also see the eggs of a nudibranch, they’re orange and that’s also beautiful to see, almost as beautiful as the nudibranchs themselves. We see other divers and they point us to an octopus. He has been hiding in a cavity and that means photo-time. Another moray eel and then we’ve passed the shadow already twice. This means that we need to see the sun a last time and then should see the anemone that the guide described during briefing. And indeed, at about six metres depth we see dozens of anemones and we now know that the dive has almost ended. Just before we reached this stretch we saw a group of small fish going apart as if something’s wrong. And that was the case: a large predator was seen. I don’t know which one, but it’s a big and beautiful fish: a dark head and body and a blue stripe along the side. He passes by me a couple of metres away, but he’s so fast I can’t take any good pictures. And then it’s finished for the day and this vacation. We dive back to the boat, get on it. Or better: we use the elevator on board to get in: really very luxurious: on the lift, the crew is helping you with your fins, really great service. Then the trip goes back to the harbour over a rough sea and we walk back to the hotel. I immediately take all my gear back to the room.
When I’m back in our room I’m very happy I can see Evy and Arne back and after a shower and the baby-bottle we prepare for supper. Because we had a busy day, walking, diving, shopping and the sea-air that makes you tired, we stay at the hotel. I have a cold, so we’re not paying a lot of money for food when I can’t even taste it. We have a drink and eat something and then go back to the room. Arne goes to bed and we watch some football on the TV and then go to bed at about ten o’clock. Tomorrow we’re going to visit some villages from the Middle Ages. We’re looking forward to it; it can be really great. Hopefully the weather is not going to be a problem. The forecasts are not that good. Sleep tight Estartit.
