(26-07-10) In Portugal, off the coast of Peniche, a small archipelago in the Atlantic declared a Biosphere Marine Reserve offers many opportunities to dive in clear waters full of life and colour.

    Maybe some of you do not know the name “Berlengas”, and others may be looking forward to dive here again. If you haven’t done it yet, the first thing to do is to explain you where it is and how to do it.

    Some 100 km north Lisbon (Portugal) it is the city Peniche, which, surrounded by a huge wall of the 14 Century known as Fort Peniche, has inside about 27.500 inhabitants and a surface of 77 square km  in the Atlantic Ocean where the Berlengas archipelago is located.

    What once was a defensive stronghold on the coast now is a holiday destination, with more than 10 km of coastline where large cliffs combine with excellent beaches, suitable for resting and practising water sports. A recommended excursion brings us to the Berlengas archipelago, where some of us will some back soon.

    The Berlengas archipelago is located in the Atlantic Ocean at a distance of about 5.7 nautical miles from Cape Carvoeiro (about 10 km from Peniche), on the coast of Portugal. It consists of an island, Berlenga Grande and some granitic islets and rocks (Estelas and Farilhões). Berlenga Grande is seen from the mainland when there is no fog.

    Declared marine reserve of the biosphere by the European Council in 1981 along with the transparency of the open Atlantic that can reach 25 meters and the marine richness of the archipelago, I would say that this is a unique place that has nothing to envy to others more famous.

    It can be considered the first protected area in the world, because Alfonso V of Portugal (1438-81) banned hunting in Berlenga Grande in 1765, ant today it continues like this. So, you have another reason to know it.

How to dive here

    The procedures for diving in Berlengas Islands are the same as in Spain. A diving license and a medical certificate will be enough as the diving insurance is only mandatory for the dive centre. The first thing to do is to contact a diving center, in our case we did it with the centre Haliotis in Peniche. It has a comfortable 3-star hotel where you can rest before and after your dives.

    The centre will make you a weekend package in which 4 dives in the islands will be included, besides tanks and weights, room with breakfast and a lunch between dives, which will be in some of the beaches of Berlengas. It will cost about 200€, plus trip. They will design a diving plan appropriate to the level of your group; if you are a beginner or a master diver, here you will find your dives always the sea or the weather conditions are good.

    Air, nitrox, trimix or even rebreathers are not a problem. Besides that, the centre has also 5 semi rigid boats fully equipped, two of 12 m with 400 hp at stern, two of 8 m with 200 hp and one one of 7.5 m with other 200 hp. 

    In our case we had planned to dive four times among Saturday and Sunday, two over 30 m deep (wreck and caves) and other two among 12 and 20 m and go back home on Sunday at 5pm.

We had tried it several times

    We have tried to go many times but, sometimes for work and other times for work as well... we had to cancel our cherished journey up to three times. We had always been told that, as we were used to dive in the Galician waters with a visibility between 2 and 5 m, here we were going to go had a lot of fun with visibilities between 20 and 30 m in bottoms full of life and colour.

    “Like in Galicia, but with transparent waters”, said some of my acquaintance. Pelagic, nudibranches, groupers, huge gorgonians and a great lobster of 8 kg in the cave “do rabo do asno” were waiting for us. We have been told that it was so spectacular that the never-ending 478 km seemed to be only a walk after a hard day at work; and weather forecast was good.

    When we got there, as I always do when I go to dive outside… bad news: weather has changed and planned dives are impossible to do. Despite the fact that the sky is clear, the furious Atlantic ocean can be heard from the room of the hotel. Gonzalo, manager of Hailotis, apologize for having had to change our destinations for a more protected area.  For the sadness of his eyes and his voice we conclude that we just will get wet and won’t see great things. The visibility will be poor and nobody can say us the meters of visibility we will have.

    The next day, we prepare our equipments and wait for a van to give us a ride to the port, where we will embark and go to our destination: The Berlengas archipelago.

    The trip lasts 45 minutes in normal conditions, but García, our skipper and dive master, says that it will last more; the sea is rough and will make us lose some time. It does not seem so hard in the port, but out of its protection… waves of 3 m. I recognize I wasn’t brave enough to make a picture, what movement, the skipper… fantastic.

Saturday morning

    When we arrived we approach as much as we could to the island, looking for the most protected area. The sun was shining and the water invited us to dive as soon as possible. We got equipped very fast and jumped. The sensation of diving in a fishbowl delighted us as the seabed was 15 m depth! and the say that the water wasn’t clear… Only 15 meters separated us from those animals and those beautiful bottoms that every photographer yearns for having in front of the camera.

    The sensation of seen everything with so much clarity is strange to us, used to see as far as our nose. The dive master has told us that we were going to meet the shipwreck “Primavera”, a wooden cargo ship 50 m. in length that carried stones, which had been eaten by the Atlantic when tried to get shelter in the island.

    When we reach the bottom, the little we see are some rickety beams and a lot of holes that we were told not to explore because of the little resistance of the few remaining fragments of the cover. It is so that from above we cannot see the wreck.

    On the other side, among the stones that were the load of the ship, there is sand. Both, stones and sand, form an ecosystem where we can see mullets and wrasses. The beams are decorated with big anemones in which small gobies and blennies take refuge.

    The group was formed by 14 divers, but I was the only photographer, so I didn’t realize I was alone taking pictures to small fishes while they surrounded the ship until they came back and we had to begin the ascent.

    The funniest thing is that, as we were going back to the zodiac, they all were talking about the spectacular anchor stuck in the sand that I didn’t see, that no body let me know and that all of them were talking about. I take note of it for the next time I go to Berlengas, in September.

BETWEEN DIVE AND DIVE

    While we got ready for the next dive we are brought to the island and disembark, take a snack and sleep a bit in the beach. It is great that the dive club changes the tank while we have a rest.

    We are carried to a protected cove in which the spectacular of the dive is a tunnel that crosses a rocky area of the island. It is an easy dive, from the 9 to 12 meters depth, beautiful because it is rich in flora and fauna.

    Large shoals of mullets, white bream, pinto bass, mullet, bogues, blennies and others, a bottom full of life that, despite being only 6 meters deep, has nothing to envy to more difficult dives.

    Sponges and red algae that emerge from the stones give shelter to all these species and also beautify and give colour to the dive. Small nudibranches and octopuses complete the list of species that we could observe carefully. But the most spectacular are the shoals of fishes swimming among waters while sunrises contact the water, a picture I was looking forward to since many time!

 

THIRD DIVE: SUNDAY MORNING

    On Sunday morning we were going to have a deep dive, but the bad weather made us change the place: the wreck 35 meters deep will have to wait. Plan B was to dive in the “cueva do rabo do asno”, a cave located 30 meters deep with an entrance through which several divers can easily access.

    Once inside, divers are received by a beautiful white gorgonian located in the middle of the cave. While we go inside, the cave widens and shows its more colourful face in form of pink and mauve gorgonians that cover the walls of the cave.

    If we continue going inside we will discover that there is a second floor, to which we enter through a smaller hole. We van see some light inside, and when we reach the end we discover that it is a water chimney through which light from the surface enters.

    Coming back outside the save we see that the entrance offers us a unique setting to take some pictures with a model, and even an octopus is encouraged to appear in the photo.

    The ascent begins once we go out of the cave. Walls here are completely covered with gorgonians, and it is difficult to see the real colour of the stone. The varieties of gorgonians we can see are many. The truth is that I don’t know all of them, but there is a great diversity of species among which small nudibranches, shrimps and, like always, all sort of fish take shelter. They make our safety stop at 5 m depth be as pleasant as the rest of the dive.

The farewell

    On Sunday we asked our guide to make a second dive a bit faster, the fear of the nearly 500 km we have now is something that can ruin more than a dive. Thus, Jose Alberto, our guide today, anchors in a cove of those that appear in the films where we are going to have lunch and we finish.

    Here, while we have lunch, two friendly skipper assistants change the tanks and prepare everything for us. I have to say that the people of the centre deserve 10 points. I thought the second dive was going to so light that it wasn’t worth it, but once again life has taught me a lesson: today, not to be prejudiced.

    The dive: awesome, I never thought a dive so shallow (6 m.) in an area that seemed to be death, could be so spectacular. Small scorpionfish offer themselves as models, while yellow sponges rest for the night hunt.  Crabs approach to get some food. Scorpionfish camouflage in the seabed waiting for a little lost fish. So, spectacular. A great weekend. Now, with all those new experiences, the 500 km coming back home will be better.