Algarve diving - a brief report

Hi All,

I guess it may not interest everyone, a there'll be no mention of
nitrox or deep wreck penetration, but I thought I'd write a little note
about the pleasant afternoon I spent with Tivoli Diving on the Algarve
last week.
Was in the Algarve for a long weekend of golf and had Thursday
afternoon spare so I wanted to fit in some diving. This was the only
active dive school I could find and they were about 30 mins from
Vilamoura.

Did a couple of shore dives, which might not sound too exciting but as
this was to be my first trip since completing my PADI Open Water last
year, I was happy to do anything. It was just me and two guides.
The dive plan for the first dive was to fin out about 35m offshore,
then dive down to the Virginia Rock, which involves a small swim
through. However, I must have got the wrong end of the stick as I
finned out too far and fast, and by the time I looked back the others
were about 20m behind me waving vigorously! By the time I'd finned back
to them I'd used up half my tank! So the first dive was only 22 mins in
6m. Still, there was reasonable viz - 8m, and fish and anemones to see.
Second dive went to plan and we made it to the Virginia Rock. Depth was
9m, viz was 8m again, temp was 15/16 degrees. The swim through wasn't
tight at all - I'd done a tighter one on one of my qualifying dives.
The highlight was seeing a good sized cuttlefish that was happy to hang
around for photos. Also saw an octopus although it was awfully well
camouflaged. If anyone wants to help ID some of the fish in these
pictures I'd be most grateful. :o)
http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f4...arlett/Diving/

In summary, the dive school seemed to me to be very well run, with
nice, friendly staff and I'll certainly go back, assuming my mates and
I go back for another golf trip next year. Pretty sure they do boat
trips as well, but for a spare afternoon, the shore dive was enough for
me.

Cheers
Alastair
(first time poster)