Dive Sites

A friend of mine recently came over to Lanzarote for 5 days – just to dive. At this time of year, there are some fantastic bargains on flights to Lanzarote, and the island offers a brilliant respite to the winter blues for northern European divers.

Three of us, all experienced divers, set out in a friend’s four wheel drive car one day to discover some new dive sites. We explored some of the northern coast of Lanzarote, which is only accessible in calm conditions, and we had just such a day.

After bumping up and down tracks for an hour or so, we had found several possibilities, but entry and exit would be difficult, and because we hadn’t brought any ropes, we decided to dive one of the more easily accessible bays, despite the fact that it looked pretty shallow.

We had good fun diving with Darren and Leona while they were on the island for a week. Darren took some amazing photos, and I’ve attached a few for you. They were all taken either at Playa Chica or Charco del Palo.

I would be the first to admit that I have a “childish” streak in me, but then again don’t most men? What’s that got to do with diving? Well it will, I hope become apparent soon.

After all these years of diving here in Lanzarote, we went to try yet another new dive site, it was at a small fishing village called Playa Quemada. Looking on the Marine chart, it showed a 500mtr contour line about 300 to 400mtrs out, so we decided to use the underwater scooters as these are highly maneuverable and you can almost fly underwater.

Isn’t it funny how you often don’t see the great dives coming? I suppose that’s because they’re often spur of the moment dives, that aren’t too heavily planned. I had one yesterday. There wasn’t anything spectacular to see, we didn’t break any depth or time records, it was simply a great combination of superb conditions, a buddy I trust totally and everything working exactly as it should. So here’s the story:

We had decided to dive at Charco del Palo in Lanzarote, the weather was perfect – cloudless, stunning blue skies and almost no wind. As it has been like this for few weeks, we knew the visibility would be excellent and the sea temperature a pleasant 21 degrees, even at more than 30 meters. We had been concerned that there may be a current, but in the event it was gentle and we swam into it on our way out and drifted back with it.

It was a relief to drop into the water – the air temperature was around 30 degrees, so the walk down to the rocks was a warm one. We swam out a little way on the surface, then dropped down to 8 meters to check the current. We’d agreed to follow the long finger of lava to the left at Charco at around 8-10 meters to conserve air – we were on 12 liter cylinders and we normally use 15’s.

Living on Lanzarote is great. If you are a diver living here, it doesn’t get much better, and I recently discovered that on our nearby Island of Fuerteventura, there is an institute for the mentally disabled, and on Lanzarote there is a newly built residential care home, either of which this week I considered checking myself into.

You see, a friend of mine has come out for 10 days diving, she is 23 and sickeningly qualified for a girl of that age, but as it is with a different organisation to mine I can live with that.

Playa Chica is the “standard” dive site in Lanzarote, and the most dived area of the island. That’s because entry and exit are easy, there’s plenty to see, and the dive sites are all quite well sheltered meaning even when the sea is rough, diving is still safe and visibility remains good.

You can enter and exit either via the steps in the harbor wall, or by using the gently sloping sandy beach. There are also boats from the harbor to take divers out to the two wrecks which are too far to swim out to.

Divers in Lanzarote have been waiting years for the opportunity to dive the waters of La Graciosa, which is the spectacular island off the north coast of Lanzarote. It has been protected for some time, but is known to be somewhere where you might catch a glimpse of with Hammerheads and also to offer some great drift diving due to the strong currents in the straight between the islands known as El Río. The island has tow villages, and miles and miles of golden sandy beaches

Badlies Cave is so called because a bunch of us, who are all lacking in the hair department, actually discovered the cave! It’s at Charco del Palo, which is a small village near Mala on the coast of Lanzarote. As you drive into the village, take the first turning on the right, and then the third on your left. This is a dead end so park at the bottom of the road.

From here you can see the beach area, which is where you’ll be entering the water – this is the first fun part! You can only do this dive at high tide, as the exit from the beach has a narrow channel which only exists at high tide. If the waves are running, it can be quite hard to get out against them, but coming back is hilarious. More on that later.

One of the treats of diving here in Lanzarote, is that we have “forests” of black coral in various parts of the island. Black Coral is typically found at 45 meters or more, so it’s right on the limit of air diving, but we quite frequently dive to those depths to look at the coral.

The sea bed close in shore here consists of lava reefs, which drop gently to around 40 meters, and in most places there is then a steep drop to 300 meters. The coral lives just before the big drop offs.