Stepping Stones to Africa (the Canary Islands)

Closer to Africa than Spain, the Canary Islands are made up of a combination of cultures. Sue Scott, Tony Gilbert and Dan Burton also find the diving an eclectic mix

Famed for their winter sun, the Canaries are advertised as an affordable destination, within easy reach of UK airports and with a balmy climate – all of which is true. But the islands have a lot more to offer besides lying in the sun. They are surprisingly different from one another, with fascinating natural history, geology, human culture, and good snorkelling and diving.

The seven main Canary Islands – the tips of undersea volcanoes – are scattered in the Atlantic off the northwest coast of Africa. Lanzarote, nearest to Africa, is the newest island, geologically speaking, and still hot – the temperature just below the ground in the extraordinary Timanfaya National Park is more than 400ºC! Fuerteventura has a more weathered volcanic landscape, with long sandy beaches and dunes, while Tenerife’s classic volcano peak, Mount Teide, over 3,700m high, attracts moisture from the oceanic air, and consequently the island’s vegetation is much more lush.

The Canary Islands have many species in common with the other Atlantic island groups of Cape Verde, Madeira, and the Azores (collectively known as Macaronesia), and some which apparently live only here, which adds to the diving interest. There is always the chance of seeing big ocean wanderers, and whale and dolphin watching is good from Tenerife in particular. The water temperature varies from a cool 16ºC in winter to 24ºC in summer. It can be windy, especially in winter but usually from a predictable direction, so diving is concentrated on the south or east of the islands. This makes it easy to combine diving with other activities for non-diving partners. Or why not take them snorkelling, the first stage in getting them hooked?

Fuerteventura

Strong winds and sandy beaches

Some of the best diving in Fuerteventura can be found in the sound between Corralejo and the island of Lobos – part of the shallow channel that separates Fuerteventura from Lanzarote – and is mostly at a depth of less than 15m, but with some drop-offs to 25m. Much of the sea bed is flat, urchin-grazed rock with patches of boulders and sand, but there are also some dramatic volcanic rock formations which form the main dive sites. Vertical rock and overhangs, especially where there is some current, have a colourful coating of invertebrates, and fish are abundant everywhere.

Dive sites in the sound are a few minutes ride from Corralejo in Corralejo dive centre’s spacious RIB. My favourite dive site, Bajon del Rio, comprises three flat-topped mushrooms of lava, with undercut sides covered with colourful sponges, sea squirts, small corals and anemones, and if you’re lucky, a Canary locust lobster in the darkest recesses. Shoals of African white bream follow the dive guide (I wonder why!), while guelly jacks and Atlantic damselfish hang around the jagged lava rim, with the occasional lurking grouper. There are many other photogenic fish, including bluefin damsels, parrotfish, puffers, scorpionfish and wrasse. My most memorable fish here was a beautiful, blue scribbled filefish, which had had a lucky escape from a shark – teethmarks on both sides! Talking of teeth, beware of cheeky triggerfish. I was bitten while engrossed in photographing a suspiciously co-operative painted comber – I could almost see the two of them sniggering!

Calamario is another favourite site, with a vertical drop-off from 15–22m. Here we saw black moray (found only in the Macaronesian islands), trumpetfish, barracuda and stingrays, together with yellow and red sea fans and club-tipped anemones. There’s something new to see on every dive. On one occasion my buddy even saw a turtle – while I was totally oblivious to it, busy photographing a very interesting seaweed!

Snorkelling at Corralejo
Non-divers take heart – you don’t have to enrol on a diving course to see wild and free moray eels, octopus, cuttlefish, angel sharks and shoals of beautiful fish. All these can be seen by snorkelling, in an idyllic location on the northwest coast of Fuerteventura; safe for beginners, perfect for all those left at the shore by their diving partners, and absolutely teeming with life.

Leafing through the ‘winter sun’ brochures, the photo of El Caleton, a small apartment block just north of El Cotillo, a fishing village on the northwest coast of Fuerteventura, caught our attention. ‘Two kilometres from the village, by itself on the shore of a sheltered lagoon.’ Perfect. ‘No mains electricity; generator runs morning and evening.’ Even better – like a spacious liveaboard that doesn’t go up and down. You’ve guessed it – we don’t like big tourist resorts! But, if you prefer more nightlife, El Cotillo is no more than a 20-minute drive from Corralejo.

Sitting on the balcony, sipping our first G&T of many, we watched the sun set over two beautiful lagoons, about 100m across, enclosed by black lava flows, with a floor of white shell sand. Watching a mountainous surf pounding the outer reefs, while only a few ripples disturbed the lagoons, we realized that it’s one of the few places on the exposed west side of the island where snorkelling is safe whatever the weather. Fuerteventura is frequently very windy (fuerte = strong, ventura = wind) in winter, so snorkelling is often impossible on the open coast.

At low tide, the inner lagoon empties (the tidal range is about 2m on spring tides), exposing a white sand beach, but water remains in a bouldery channel deep enough for snorkelling to an outer lagoon. Here there is much more life, on a varied sea bed of sand, boulders, rocky outcrops, walls and overhangs, all of which have their own particular inhabitants. Other fish, such as the bright Turkish wrasse, beautiful blue-finned damsels, and roving shoals of mullet and yellow-striped cow bream, we could see anywhere in the lagoon.

The best time to snorkel, both for seeing marine life and to avoid the surf, is at low spring tides. The lowest tides, unfortunately for those who like a lie-in on holiday, are early in the morning, soon after sunrise (7–8am in January), and in the evening. A spring tide around a full rather than a new moon is best, as the views of the moon rising over the hills at night and setting over the sea early in the morning are spectacular. At dawn many night-time animals, such as octopus, burrowing anemones, rockfish and morays are still active, while the daytime fish are just awakening. Snorkelling at dusk is good too but unfortunately coincides with the sun going down ‘over the yard arm’. However, as the tides get a bit later each day, there is bound to be some time during a fortnight’s holiday when a snorkel at low tide will suit your personal time-clock!

So before breakfast, long before the ‘lobsters’ (red nudists – sorry, naturists) stake their claims (ouch!) to the lava windbreaks, we’re off down the beach to catch the marine life on film – plenty of time for lying in the sun later! If you want to avoid the strong currents of the entrance channel, just walk over the rocks and enter the lagoon further in. But it’s worth looking in the channel because water currents always mean lots of life. The boulders are literally an octopus’s garden of bright seaweeds. At night, it’s the only place where I’ve seen the lovely long-armed octopus, orange with white spots. In the daytime octopus hide in crevices or under overhangs, often camouflaging themselves with stones and shells. In close-up mode, I once carefully moved a stone to get a better shot at a pretty sea slug, and was startled when a suckered arm shot out and put the stone back – I hadn’t even noticed the large octopus prickling indignantly in its lair right next to me!

In the entrance channel we’ve also seen cuttlefish, Mediterranean morays, golden spotted snake eel, and small, shy groupers hiding under overhangs. There are huge sea hares, jet black, or pink with black circles. Don’t forget to look upwards occasionally to play ‘spot the garfish’ – their elongated silvery bodies blend perfectly with the surface ripples.

Some fish are actually easier to see snorkelling than diving, because they live only in the shallows. We’ve nicknamed one spot, where surf breaks over into the lagoon at high tide, ‘blenny corner’ because it’s the best place to see shy Atlantic (or red-lipped) blennies, the even shyer flat crabs that live in the same vertical crevices, much more confident Morocco blennies, and lava-coloured Maul’s gobies. All these live in the top metre or so of the water.

After a few evenings eating in the excellent fish restaurants in El Cotillo you can identify your supper while snorkelling – vieja (parrotfish), sabrilla (comber), and sargo (bream), are my favourites. We’ve also seen a torpedo ray and discovered an angel shark, more than a metre long, buried in sand in water only half a metre deep. When I gently brushed the sand from its nose – probably not a wise thing to do, on reflection, having later seen how it catches fish with a lightning strike from its huge maw – it shook itself in irritation and lazily swam off to deeper water, where we watched it reburying itself.

Now the ‘winter break’ discussion goes: ‘Shall we try somewhere different this year?’ ‘Okay, if you like.’ Pause.
‘Or we could just go back to El Cotillo’.
Sue Scott

 

Lanzarote

Under the African sun

Lanzarote is the easternmost of the Canary Islands and its dormant volcanic cones and ash mountains dominate the skyline. Among these, locals carve out an existence in the parched earth, making wine and growing vegetables such as Canarian tomatoes, onions and potatoes. The volcanic ash is used to retain the moisture in the top surface.

Over the years little has changed inland, however the tourist industry is now present on the coast, with several areas now well established. There are many places and attractions to visit, such as the Fire Mountains (the tourist name for the National Park of Timanfaya) and, on a Sunday, the market at Teguise. The main tourist area is Puerto del Carmen, which offers the tourist a choice of a relaxing vacation, or something more adventurous, such as scuba diving.
Located at the end of the tourist part of Puerto del Carmen is Playa de la Barrilla, the home of Safari Diving. Many divers, whether diving with Safari or not, catch their first glimpse of the Lanzarotian underwater world from here. The rugged volcanic landscape created above the water spills into the Atlantic, forming breathtaking views.

Diving the Cathedral/House Reef
As you begin to kit up, the sea laps against the two lava ridges, which form the boundaries of the beach. A convivial atmosphere ensues among the gathered divers, of many European nationalities, some with cameras and others with video cameras. It is a truly cosmopolitan diving scene, analogous with the underwater world that beckons, where temperate, tropical and Mediterranean species mingle. On entry, many lemonfish come towards you in the shallows, as your fins disturb the sandy bottom.

The lava ridges of this beach form a wonderful, shallow area in which to explore or off-gas – at each end the depth is about 10m. Here many species of sub-tropical and temperate animals go about their daily business, including shrimps, parrotfish and starfish. A small cave at 3m may be explored with care. The same area is used for night diving and comes alive in a completely different way, with octopus, hermit crabs, fields of anemones, and angel sharks.

Moving further out, passing the ridges, we descend easily into clear blue water with the sand slope below. From 10m to about 22m, large grouper appear followed by a small dark shape, regular in outline. A closer inspection shows it to be the wreck of small lifeboat.

An edge to the sand plain suddenly appears, and you are left wondering, as your forward momentum carries you gently over the reef top, drop-off and into the blue – surely, the nearest thing to flying!

Just under half a kilometre offshore from Safari Diving beach, the lava/granite reef is at its closest to the land. Here you can find an abundance of marine life – morays, barracuda, large groupers and many shoals of fish. The reef drops sheer to 60–90m, so depth and buoyancy should be checked frequently. In the sand slope there are angel sharks, electric or guitar rays and, if you are really lucky, butterfly rays. Look seaward for very large rays cruising past the wall.

Our party of divers turns left along the reef top, descending slightly to 25m. The lava walls, grey and craggy, tower and loom into the distance in the exceptional visibility (40m-plus). Eventually, another corner turned, a dark area in the rock opens up, its mouth huge and gaping. Descending further to 30m a vast cavern can be seen, like a cathedral in shape. Large groupers are on patrol, and trumpetfish hide parallel to the reef top, while isolated pockets of Red Coral adorn the walls. Checking our air consumption, it’s now time to head back and return up a different sand slope.

The sand slopes contain rock outcrops with much life, such as shrimps, arrow crabs, encrusting sponges and anemones. At 20m, the surrounding sands are home to garden eels dipping into their burrows as divers pass. Look closely around the rocks and you may just spot a seahorse.

Other dive sites consist of large caverns, reefs, walls, drop-offs, overhangs and lava tongues formed from the volcanic activity over the millennia, creating large underwater vistas. The seasons do not vary too much, so the water temperature ranges between 18 and 24ºC, a 5mm wetsuit is ideal. A small selection of dive sites is described below.

Harbour Wrecks
A short boat ride from Playa de la Barrilla boat jetty, just outside Puerto del Carmen harbour, is the wreck park. At 20m, a steel wreck lies slightly on its side, the bow creating an overhang on the reef it rests upon. This is ideal for off-gassing, and novice divers. The remainder of the wrecks, five in total, lie in various states of decay, at depths of between 24 and 41m depth, the deepest being a ribbed wreck with a steel propeller. The park is a haven of fish life, including barracuda, morays, anemones, and visitors such as sunfish, and dolphins or eagle rays.

Ritchie’s Place
Another boat dive along the coast parallel to the main Puerto del Carmen beach is a wonderful scenic site, made up of several caverns, swim-throughs, deep drop-offs and scenic circles of lava ridges. This site has some of the best visibility around at more than 40m, the depths plunging to 100m creating enormous sea cliffs. Here, many shoals of fish congregate; large colonies of red coral, and colourful anemones with symbiotic shrimps are fixed to the lava overhangs, while on the sand chutes numerous grouper and bonito patrol above buried angel sharks, electric rays and the odd sun lounger!

Rabat Wreck
A special safari needs to be arranged in order to dive this wreck of a steel trawler, located in deep water north of Puerto del Carmen.

Lying on its port side, reasonably intact, its holds are seen to be open, next to which the net sluice area is still intact, however the cranes have tumbled over. It rests next to a fringing lava reef, with the depth at the starboard prop at 35m, and the bow with its bulbous foot at 32m. The starboard hull side, grazed by parrotfish, is the topmost part of the wreck at 24m. The bridgeworks are all present, the front of which contains the name of the ship. At roughly 50m long, you can normally dive this on air, however, nitrox would be better. Large, single barracuda look at you warily, and occasionally if you are really lucky, a circle of schooling barracuda can be seen.

Essential Information
Remember that in all of Spain and the Canaries, a medical certificate is recommended and you will need proof of qualification and a logbook. A dive permit from a dive centre is required.
Tony Gilbert

Tenerife

Planet of the Apes

This was my first trip to Tenerife. I had been brought to the island by the promise of good diving not too far from the UK and at a reasonable price. So, after a four-hour flight from London, Gatwick, I arrived in the Canaries to be met by my web buddy and Tenerife resident, Mark. An hour’s drive followed, taking us through some of the banana plantations that Tenerife is renowned for, and down long, winding roads to the harbour of Puerto de Santiago, home of the British-run dive centre Los Gigantes Divers.

Unfortunately, within a few days of arrival, the weather turned bad, so we headed north to the hills. There, in the Teide National Park, is the volcano Teide which stretches some 3,718m high. The park itself, with its sparse vegetation and dusty ground, is evocative of a lunar landscape and was the setting for the film Planet of the Apes. Teide is something of metaphor for the Canaries themselves: hot, dusty and volcanic, and of course, stunning.

When the weather improved I was looking forward to getting in the water. There is a great deal of diving around the island, but many sites are inaccessible for the majority of the year, due to the big swells coming in from the Atlantic. Puerto de Santiago is one of the few sites that are fairly well protected during the year. It offers a port to depart from and more than 20 destinations to dive.

Diving with rays
Of all the dives that Tenerife has to offer – and believe me, there are a lot – one of the best is the stingray dive. Located directly beneath the spectacular cliffs of Los Gigantes, which tower more than 500m into the sky, it is the Canary Islands’ equivalent of the Cayman Islands’ Stingray City.

Neville, the dive shop owner, started feeding the common stingrays five years ago and within six months he had gained their trust. Now, twice a week, he offers divers the unique opportunity to get close to these gentle giants.

As our group descended to the sea bed, rays came swooping in from all directions. I had expected to see just a handful, but it quickly became crowded, and before I knew it there were in excess of 30 rays around me.

During the feeding frenzy, among the many species were the timid eagle ray, the rough-tailed stingray and the monster of them all, the butterfly ray, a species which I’d never seen before. This giant spanned 2m across, and had speckled wings and a small tail that was barely visible. The ray spent most of its time gliding across the sea bed like a stealth bomber, pouncing on prey with pinpoint accuracy. It wasn’t too interested in divers, but the sight of a tasty morsel would bring it right up to you.

The common and rough-tailed rays were like puppies, and spent most of the time halfway up divers’ bodies scrounging for pieces of fish. Everyone had the chance to feed a ray – an opportunity that was not to be missed. I was also fortunate to meet the resident octopus, which regularly attended this twice-weekly meeting. He appeared from nowhere and marched towards a young eagle ray feeding on a tuna head. Without hesitation the octopus grasped the head and took off in a cloud of ink, leaving the poor ray without a morsel.

Just off the site we dropped down to 28m and Mark, my guide, took me through a swim-through cavern. Inside, there were colourful anemones and an abundance of shrimps and other small creatures living among the cracks and crevices.

Another spectacular site we visited was Punta Blanca. The best part of this dive is at 27m, where you get the chance to swim with a resident school of cow bream and bastard grunts. The site is a photographer’s dream, with an abundance of schooling fish and macro and scenic photography.

Passing pilots
Tenerife also offers some of the best whale watching opportunities in the world. Just three miles offshore, pods of resident long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) feed on giant squid from the deep up-welling currents. Other whales which can be seen in the area include sperm, beaked, blue and false killer whales. A word of warning, swimming with the whales is no doubt an appealing idea, but heavy fines are handed out to those caught swimming with them.
Dan Burton