Galway

Photo: Fiona Birmingham

Our diving trips to Galway are usually for one week. You can do shore dives, but it's mainly boat diving. There are loads of fish, and we've seen dolphins and basking sharks. The underwater scenery, with all the anemones, is beautiful. The visibility is usually about 20m, but sometimes it's a lot more and can seem like miles. There are cave dives, and three years ago a wreck was sunk not far from Scubadive West, so they do try to please all divers. Occasionally it's a bit windy, but it's never caused us to miss a dive, as there's always somewhere protected. One site that's quite good if you get slightly blown out is Conger Alley, where the congers wait to be fed. The first conger eel I ever saw came swimming up through my legs on that site! There are fantastic brittlestars there, and it's really colourful, like being on a different planet.

We've dived the Galway area in June, July, August and September, and underwater all these months are good. When we went at the end of June the water was so flat calm that, for the first time ever, I wasn't seasick. I can't stand diving if it's all a rush, but at Scubadive West there's never a rush. The boat leaves at 10am and gets back about 5pm, when you've done two dives. You don't have to be up at the crack of dawn, so it's more like a holiday, not just a dive trip. It's so remote and peaceful there. In the evenings we do cook occasionally, but usually go to a pub in the local village where the food is really good. Sometimes we eat in the next village, which is described as 'just down the road', but that can take 20 or 30 minutes in the minibus down twisty roads. The nearest big town is more than ten miles away. It's great if you like scenery and having the beach to yourselves. Further south it's more expensive, as there are more tourists. We've dived in a lot of places, including Malta, Corfu, Swanage, Oban and the Cornish coast, but don't go too far because we have a dog. We keep returning to Ireland because we're always raving about the diving, and at Scubadive West, which we've watched grow over the years, the people look after us.