Ian Roriston recently moved to Spain and has sent some details of diving in Almeria with the Villaricosub dive centre. Below is an extract from a recent email received from Ian along with some photographs.

"Due to the delayed arrival here the job at the dive centre has not been possible this year as they had to take on someone else due to the season being well advanced by the time we arrived in July. However, I still maintain a good relationship with them and I have attached some quickly taken photo's which you may wish to use for the newsletter and web pages. The Villaricosub website:  has no English version at present and in truth I am not sure when it will have although I am told that it is in hand. Regardless of this, I am still in a position to handle any enquiry that club members may have."

"The centre is well organised with plenty of space for kit storage. There are clean showers and good kit washing facilities. Two good boats available with the larger 8.5 metre boat brand new this season. The other boat is a 6.5 metre one. Both have inboard diesel engines and ride the waves very well. Journeys to and from the dive sites are quite short in duration (20 minutes) and usually quite comfortable due to the tranquil weather here."

"The dive centre is based at Villaricos in Almeria which is still a small fishing village. There are safe beaches both here and close by and the area is very family friendly. The coast line has some really attractive features and the whole area has much to offer excluding theme parks with the exception of a small water park."
"The diving is not as spectacular as the Red Sea of course but it is easy with quite a good selection of fish life and always manages to throw in a couple of surprises. Diving with Pete Dunn last week, we had schools of barracuda and a passing eagle ray. This is the first eagle ray I have seen here but I have had plenty of divers reporting that they have seen them."

"If you are lucky, dolphins might present themselves on the way to or back from the dive sites. At the moment we have flying fish. The diving is reef based and there are no wrecks close by. The great thing about it is that the journey here from the UK is only a couple of hours away, perfect for a long weekend even and the water is warm. In truth, the journey is about 8 hours door to door. There can be no guarantees but the chances of winter sunshine here are very high and water temperature at its lowest would be 14C in Feb/March.

Should there be any interest, I can obtain information on both hotel or self catering accommodation. All I would need are the specific details of the parties travelling."

Ian Roriston

Ian can be contacted by email here:
Telephone: 0034 950 618737