Diving Karnataka And Cultural Trip In South India.
This is a review about a diving tour in India. This particular trip was in March 2005.We had dived many times from the Marriott Hotel in Goa from where Barracuda Diving are based but fancied doing something a little different whilst enjoying ... Read review
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Advantages: Everything is organised for you. Get to see the non touristy side of India Disadvantages: Bit of a long car journey
Diving Karnataka And Cultural Trip In South India.
This is a review about a diving tour in India. This particular trip was in March 2005.We had dived many times from the Marriott Hotel in Goa from where Barracuda Diving are based but fancied doing something a little different whilst enjoying our favourite hobby….scuba diving so this time we opted to go South. This review is based on the trip itself and the diving rather than the dive school ... ...at our usual haunt Barracuda Diving at Miramar at 9.30 and helped load up the 4 X 4 vehicle. As we were going to be around 5 hours away it was even more important to take the right kit. We were introduced to another diving couple who we were going to be joining. We had a driver and would be joined in Murudeshwar by the dive guide who was meeting us there by train as there was not enough room for him in the Jeep.
Diving Karnataka And Cultural Trip In South India. This is a review about a diving tour in India. This particular trip was in March 2005.We had dived many times from the Marriott Hotel in Goa from where Barracuda Diving are based but fancied doing something a little different whilst enjoying our favourite hobby….scuba diving so this time we opted to go South. This review is based on the trip itself and the diving rather than the dive school of which I have already done a review. I have only given a taster of the trip as don't want to bore people.
We turned up at our usual haunt Barracuda Diving at Miramar at 9.30 and helped load up the 4 X 4 vehicle. As we were going to be around 5 hours away it was even more important to take the right kit. We were introduced to another diving couple who we were going to be joining. We had a driver and would be joined in Murudeshwar by the dive guide who was meeting us there by train as there was not enough room for him in the Jeep.
We set off on yet another one of Goa's idyllic hot days. Thank goodness for the decent air con. We passed many little towns and villages and the first couple of hours soon passed by and we stopped for a spot of lunch. This was in a little town of Karwar. We pulled up at a restaurant (probably the sort you may usually pass by). We were warmly greeted by the staff and were soon drinking a ice cold well deserved Kingfisher. We all ordered food and lunch was soon served. We had various variations of curries, popadoms, and pakoras and of course rice. It was as you would expect freshly cooked and delicious.
We were soon on our way again and heading for our final destination passing lovely scenery and the Konkan railway from which our dive guide was travelling on. The ox carts loaded to the hilt with branches were fascinating! You don't see any of them on the M25!
As we approached our final stop we could see the magnificent golden statue of Shiva. (More about that later)
As we approached the interior of Murudeshwar we were greeted by brightly coloured little shops and a hive of brightly coloured tuk tuks (India's 3 wheeler taxis), temples and local people going about their business. We pass a rather impressive beach to the right and then the Jeep pulls up to the impressive looking RMS Residency hotel we will be staying for two nights.
RMS Residency Hotel. This is a 3* hotel facing the Arabian Sea surrounded by a picturesque sea shore and virtually empty beach. The hotel has 90 luxury rooms ( by Indian standards) although we were more than happy with our clean spacious room complete with air con, a bath ( a luxury in India!),shower, TV and in room safe and with a little balcony facing right over the sea giving us a magnificent view of the beach. We were actually the only guests the first day!
After our long journey we sought the pool which was a reasonable size, with no other people in it. We plunged in and turned round to find the statue of Shiva looming between the hotel floors.
We all met for a drink and our guide who had now arrived took us to sunset point and the Statue of Shiva. The statue of Shiva looks to be a least 100ft high but carved with incredible attention to detail from the long shapely fingers, intricately knotted hair, the serpent coiled around its neck to the tiger skin he's seated on. It's certainly impressive to say the least. We walk around the temple and other statues (all magnificent but would write forever on here if I included them) and we draw a lot of attention from the local kids. The locals don't see many white people especially white women. They were all harmless and were really interested in our digital cameras and camcorders. They loved it when we could take a photo and then show it to them. Most of our cameras cost more than they would ever earn over many years. Our guide Vikas was a bit concerned we would find them too much and was going to tell them to go away but we are well travelled and it didn't bother us at all. I did indeed have some idea of how Michael Palin must have felt on his travels. We went into the church which also was fascinating Vikas being an excellent guide. We watched a splendid sunset, after snapping many photos.
NB: To walk round Shiva was free but our guide paid a few rupees to enter the church.
We then went to a restaurant for dinner and sat outside under a myriad of twinkling stars .We had first class service from the waiters. We each ordered a variety of dishes and Vikas ordered some things for us to try. Our table was soon covered with various dishes of hot food, rice bajis, poppadoms, pakoras curries. My favourite is always paneer curry which is cheese based and is absolutely delicious. It was like a banquet fit for kings. Food is flavoursome rather than hot and spicy in South Goa. This restaurant served beer as our hotel didn't serve beer as not all places do outside Goa.
After a good nights sleep we had an early breakfast. Vikas our guide had told us all to turn up for breakfast with our swimwear. As the hotel was empty of guests we duly obliged him on this account and we all turned up for breakfast in just our swimwear much to the amazement of the hotel staff and Vikas! (We did promptly get dressed after) I don't think he has ever phased the swimwear bit quite like that again!
Now for the diving. We met our boat complete with boatmen at about 8.30 on the beach.
After checking all the dive gear we jumped aboard and headed towards our first dive site which was:
Jenny's Aquarium. Our fabulous dive began a small cavern. Visibility was around 15metres.The surrounding rocks bustled with Moorish Idols, Bannerfish, Blue Ringed Angelfish and a variety of schooling butterfly fish. We also saw honeycombed morays and lobsters. We gently drift past the sheer walls of the island which form a superb backdrop for a huge variety of fishes common to this site. Our dive lasts 57 minutes before our assent to the surface.
We have a brief surface interval and are munching on some biscuits and water when in the distance I see a blow, I shout to the others and grab my camera in time to get a picture of a Humpback Whale fluking. How fantastic is that? Now on to our next dive site.
T55 This was such a nice dive, very gentle drift, lots of little corals. Loads of Honeycombed Morays, Eagle Rays. Lots of triggers and Bannerfish to name a few. Lots of very small fish. Saw bits of the T55 which was cool. An hour was not long enough Just wanted to stay down forever. Depth 12.5m. Visibility around 15m.
After the days diving we have a mooch around the village taking photos looking at temples and Shiva again before heading off to the same restaurant and mull over the days diving.
Next day we head for the boat again and our first stop this time is:
Grand Central Station
Just kitting up for dive and saw a Whale again! Too quick to photograph though. Also saw Dolphins.Saw nice Parrotfish and Groupers and barracudas. We followed a gentle slope of hard coral and rocks towards the island. Honeycombed Morays in abundance along with Morays.Shallows were teeming with Rabbitfish and Sergant Majors.Depth of 13.7. Dive time 62 minutes. Surface interval then next dive site:
Dinis Delight And The Abyss.
Giant coral heads and and amazing swim throughs. This spot was great for photography. Loved the varicose nudibranchs, again lots of Blue Ringed Angels, Lobsters, Morays , Bannerfish and Cleaner wrasse. We were told this dive can drop to 35m but we hung about at 10.1. Just a really nice dive again! Dive time 64 minutes.
After packing up all the kit we headed back for the Dive school in Goa. We stopped again for a spot of lunch. This place almost looked like someone's house from the front. We had the most fantastic bajis here. They were so good we ordered a second round. Washed down with a chilled beer or two!
We finally arrived back at the Dive school around 7.30 pm.
All in all a fantastic trip. We were very well looked after. Had superb food and diving and even some cultural stuff thrown in. Mixed with hot weather a sure recipe for a good time.
What more could you want?
Cost: Total cost for transport, dive equipment, food, hotels, tours and diving
15000 Rupees /£174 per person
Recommend. Yes definitely. India's a fantastic country and you can dive as well. Superb dive school.
www.barracudadiving.com
Hope I didn't bore you too much and thanks for reading.
Advantages: A great dive school. Reasonable costs for diving Disadvantages: Not first class visibility
How We Got Into Diving.
In Sept 2002 my husband and I had a " try dive " at the end of a holiday in Egypt and decided we wanted to complete our PADI Open Water Course during our next holiday in March 2004 which was already booked?..to Goa?.India. Where would I find the kind of dive school inINDIA with exceptional high standards and could handle teaching a forty something, dyslexic and somewhat nervous me!
Choosing A Dive School.
I had a look on the internet and found two dive schools in Goa. The one that caught my eye in particular was Barracuda Diving as the web site looked and they were also a PADI 5 star IDC centre which I knew was an excellent start..
I whizzed off a email explaining a bit about myself ,how much I wanted to complete a course, but also the fact of how nervous I was and also that I was dyslexic and found ...
Think of pardise and the Maldives will probably fit the picture. The honeymoon islands some have called them, but I prefer to call them a Scuba Divers playground. These coral islands, around two thousand of them lay about 400 miles southwest from the southern tip of India. They have an abundance of marine life living in clear blue waters. There is great diving for beginers inside the reefs surrounding each island, for intermediates in the channels between the islands and also for experianced divers on the edge of the atols facing into the ocean. Much of the diving is drift diving, reef fish are prolific and not as timid as in some areas. Shoals of Gray Nurse and White Tip sharks are common along with eagle and manta rays and the occasional Whale Shark. The best months to visit are between Feb to April. The standards of hotels vary ...
Advantages: Beautiful scenery and marine life, great visability Disadvantages: None
particularly liked was the fact that there were so many little nooks and crannies in which fish lived meaning we got to see some species that we had not seen before.
The Dun Raven
The Dun Raven is a wreck dive and it situated right on the border of Ras Mohamed National Park. The Dun Raven was a British ship that sunk in 1876 on its way back from India. As it sunk it turned upside down and landed on the sea bed in the same position. The ship actually broke in two when it landed on the sea bed at a depth of 60metres. In total the wreck is about 80 metres long and 10 metres wide. You can enter both sections of the wreck and some beautiful marine life live here. Apparently it is quite common to see the Napoleon fish as well as Lionfish. You can still clearly see the large brass propeller which was fascinating. I really enjoyed this dive as ...
