TRIP REPORT NERJA, COSTA DEL SOL
3RD MAY 2003

by Colin Jenkins

I used ScubaNerja a company which I researched using the internet. The company is ran by Alex, a PADI staff instructor and the Dive leader/Instructor was Kylie (I kid you not) an Australian ex liveaboard Instructor.

First dive 4th May Location Three Pinnacles La Herradura Site was down a track. We kitted up and had to walk down a steep path (60m) to an entry point on a small jetty. Entry was by giant stride from a height of 2m. Dive consisted of a swim out and around three pinnacles approx 50m from the shore. Almost immediately on entry spotted a largish free swimming Red Octopus. After this the dive was fairly uneventful with a vbariety of wrasse but if you are into Nudibranchi then you might love it as we saw about 6 different varieties on the dive. Depth was 15m, vis was poor 8m at best, worst temp recorded 15°C

Second Dive 5th May Location Playa Marina Del Este. Beach entry on North side of bay. Vis still poor, 5m as the wind has been up since 4th. Site fairly uninteresting, some peacock fan worms, Moon Wrasse, and again Nudibrachi, but lot greyed out. Depth 16m temp 15°C

Third dive 5th May Location Playa Marina Del Este. Beach entry on South Side of bay. Surface swim out to wall. Not really a lot different to previous dive but as site is shaded from the sun it was colder 14°, and vis was down to 3m.

Fourth Dive 7th May Boat dive from Marina Del Este. Short RIB trip to previous beach entry south site, but this time further out. Immediately on entry nice cuttle fish, which stayed around for a while, some interesting starfish deep (deep red) and some that looked a little like crown-of-thorns but can’t find them in my book. Vis still down at 3m and temp 14° max depth 17m. Another pair of divers on this dive spotted a Sun Fish which they say was about 1.5m !!

Fifth dive 7th May Boat dive from Marina Del Este. Short RIB trip to previous beach site but now diving out from the wall on a site called Fraggles rock. Here there is a small wreck and two cars. (How they got there is a mystery). Dropped in 16m and straight down to rock. Off the point at a bearing of 150° is the boat but not a lot remains, some wooden struts and a lump of the engine. Nearby is the first car, a hatch back with the glass still in. A small grouper was hiding in this and several smaller bits and pieces. On to the second car. This had a boot and we had been told to lift it as a big conger was often to be found in it. Sure enough, it was there and it wasn’t camera shy. They always look mean. Leaving the cars we went back to the rock and had a general poke around but the water temp was way down 12° (yes that's correct, two of us had the same reading) and as we were in 5mm wets it was getting to us, so we called the dive. Max depth 26m, vis 5m. I was a little concerned on the reverse profile and a short surface interval (1hr) but my computer (Suunto) didn’t object. All in all the best dive yet.

Sixth dive 9th May. Wind had been up too much to dive on the 8th unless we went back to the previous sites and I elected not to, Site Cantarrijan Beach (nudist) Very pretty bay but very bumpy trip down to it. Two nice beach bars down there so it’s a site worth taking non-divers to if they don’t minded the nudists. Beach entry to South side of Beach. Site has an absolutely amazing bottom that’s covered in anemones, millions of them, it was a fantastic sight. Having entered a little to the north of the wall we headed across the bottom to the wall, spotted Octopus and Cuttle fish on the way. Followed wall out covered in Peacock Fans much more that any other site. Once round the corner there were some large caves/overhangs, which leant a variety to the dive, had a poke around but not much of significance found. Looking out into the blue, saw what looked like a school of Tuna but the vis was too bad to be sure. Returned back along wall to beach. Max depth10m Min temp 13°.

Seventh Dive 9th May. Same beach but now planned for a general look around the shallows off the centre of the beach. This proved to be the most pleasant dive of the series. First up was a nice Octopus. Up till now the ones seen had been Red and fairly smooth; this one was quite knobbly and was blotchy grey/black/white, couldn’t entice it out of hole to get a better look. Next came upon a large conger, tail sticking out of one side of rock and head 4ft away the other side. It was quite happy to stay out, it must be used to divers! We then got envelloped by a huge shoal of what looked like sand eels, thousands of them, so many we lost sight of the second pair diving with us. Continued poking around, again lot of different Nudibrachi, came upon a large tractor tyre and looking into it found biggest Octopus yet, its tentacles almost went round the whole perimeter of the tyre. Continuing we then came on two scorpion fish that were out in the open and just stayed there to be looked at. I suppose they don’t have too many predators so they don’t bother much. Max depth 7m, min temp 13°. Again called the dive as too cold over 100 bar left!!

Would I go back, not in a hurry, not in May. Much preferred Lanzarote and Tenerife for spring diving. Alex insisted that the bottom temps and the vis we had were total freaks and he had never seen it like this. He also agreed the sites we went to were not the best but the sea conditions limited what was accessible and finally, as we had two fairly inexperienced OW divers with us, this again limited the dives. At this time of year the number of divers they get doesn’t justify two dive masters, another one will be joining him soon to cover the busier period.
Would I use Scubanerja again? Yes. Alex was great, very professional and friendly. They collected me from the hotel and dropped me back again at the end of the day. And… wait for it washed my kit for me, had it loaded in the van and off (lazy or what). Cost 30 euro per dive (6 dives plus with own kit) 10% discount given to me for cash. One slight grouch, boat dive 15 Euro per dive a little expensive.

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