I thought I would share this little gem of a river dive with you. Today Leaky and I dived the River Lune at Devils Bridge; a lovely spot for everybody not just for diving. It was in a book called "Britain's Top Hundred Shore Dive" so we thought we'd tick it off as done.
Entry is upstream from Devils Bridge off the beach, just down from the rapids. The river was running quite fast because of all the recent rain. Entry is interesting!! Get in the water negatively buoyant up to about knee depth and face into the current, lie down and hang on to the rocks. Get as deep as you can until the current takes you. And it does; the current swings you round and then swoops you down the river into the deeper parts (max depth around 6-7 metres). The light today was fantastic. The sunlight was penetrating the water, which was really clear, giving it orange hues . Diving is restricted here at certain times of the year due to salmon and trout spawning and all that fish stuff. THe rocks underneath are smoothly worn into weird features by the currents over the years, and then all of a sudden it goes dark! You're under the bridge! Then it gets brighter again and the current takes you into a basin which can be dived in much less current. It is advised not to go under the second bridge as exiting is not as easy.
I enjoyed this so much that after my first go, I walked back up the road and did it again. Water temperature was 11 degrees today, but it was cold out although nice in the sunshine. With a few words of caution though. This is a great dive for those with a bit of experience. Separation from buddies is very likely at the start so by planning the dive, if this does happen arrange to meet up once under the bridge. This takes about two minutes!!
A lovely spot and a cracking dive for those of you looking for a home grown washing machine!!
