Diving into the unknown in Sosua (Dominican Republic)

Well ! I finally plucked up the courage after a long time of talking myself into it, which only goes to prove that if I can do it anyone can.

The signs were not good since I dont like to get my head under the water, have very limited (breaststroke) swimming abilities and I fell off a diving board in Guernsey (thank you Victoria Wood)

I needn't have worried though,I was in safe hands with the Northern Coast Diving Centre in Sosua, Dominican Republic http://www.northerncoastdiving.com/ and the very patient Christian

We started off with pool side instruction and safety in the water, hand signals, then into the pool to practise breathing and movement underwater....my movement was a bit lacking so I needed more help.

After a lunch break it was time to get all the gear on and do it for real......everyone else around seemed to know what they were doing.....ah well I felt better when I had the gear on, then I discovered you had to walk through town (hmmm) no-one batted an eyelid and at least no-one asked me to come into their shop to buy anything (lol)

I soon found myself sat on the side of the boat ready to tip myself forward into the sea.... Christian was waiting to save me from drowning and take me down to see the wonders of the world below the sea.

My swimming underwater technique left a little to be desired and I kept floating up and kept being dragged back down by my leg .Extra weights were added to help me drown ...errr keep me at the bottom.

It was amazingly calm and beautiful down there as you only have the sense of sight and touch, I was handed a few things to touch , because you cant go around picking things up yourself and killing the coral.

We weaved are way through passage and up and down coral reefs looking at the beautiful fish and soon it was time to return to the surface.

It had been a beautiful sunny day when I went down so it was a bit of a shock to find it was pi...raining heavily and grey when I emerged rather ungracefully onto the waiting boat.

It was a very enjoyable day and I hope to do more dives in the future and get certified (lol I think thats the right term)