Snorkelling off Swanpool beach, Falmouth August 12, 2007
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : General, snorkelling , 3commentsJust got back from a week with the family camping in Cornwall. This is the first time I have been down to Cornwall in the last 3 years were I haven’t taken my dive kit along. Did however take the wetsuits, masks and fins for all the family. It would be wrong otherwise!!!
We had a thoroughly enjoyable week based out of the campsite Summer Valley near Truro, enjoying some of the numerous non-diving activities that one can get up too, body-boarding, chilling on the sandy beaches, cycling, visiting the sights and tourist spots, etc etc. A fuller account of our week away is on our family blog, but for this blog I would like to make mention of the surprise gem of a hours long snorkel I had on Swanpool beach in Falmouth.
After playing on the beach with the children for a while, I donned my mask and snorkel and headed off along the rocky edge of the bay out towards the headland. The sandy seabed gradually gave way to submerged rocks of the headland, the maximum depth I swam out was about 5m but the rocks and kelp beds reminded me of the shallower areas of the manacles and drawna reef just around the headland. As a result I encountered a fair amount of similar marine life, including large wrasse and a huge spider crab wrapped around the swaying kelp, hanging on for all he’s worth. I was very surprised to see such a large crab so shallow, but there was no way of dislodging him from his perch. All this within a few metres of the shoreline.
So even though no diving during the week, that hour or so of snorkelling in surprisingly good visibility considering it is a sandy beach and lots of people were in the water, did go some way to appeasing the need to go diving whilst in Cornwall. No need to fret about not diving though as we’ll be diving at the bank holiday weekend. This time from Brixham, we are going to try sunfish charters and try the Bretagne. Watch this space for the report.
