Adventures

Playing in Spanish Waters

Exploring Scuba diving, windsurfing, and mountain springs in Spain

Mountain Spring in Spain. Photo by Rachel Thompson

This past week was full of adventures and activities. It was because I opted into a lot of the ones available and added a few of my own.

And a major theme this week was playing in the water.

Diving in Dénia

One of my goals for my Spain trip was to go scuba diving, and this last Tuesday I did!

In June of 2022, I got my Open Water Certification from a dive shop in Raleigh, NC. And I did a refresher class this June in preparation for my trip. For the certification, I only dived in a pool, and then in a murky quarry near Raleigh. Which was very convenient, especially for learning and practicing the basics.

For my first ‘real’ dive, I found a dive shop about an hour south of Valencia in a cute coastal town called Dénia where we would take a boat out and dive by a nature preserve. I ended up renting a car to drive down and arrived at 8:30 am. And then proceeded to communicate in a mix of Spanish, French, and English to get my wetsuit, air tanks, BC, and regulator sorted. I’d packed my scuba boots and fins along with my snorkel and mask from home for this trip. And I am delighted that I was able to use them!

The boat had 10 divers plus the dive master and the boat driver. Not a lot of room for any extras. The other divers were mostly Spaniards or French, though one or two of the guys spoke English. After a 10-15 boat ride, we picked up a mooring and geared up to fall off the boat backward into the water.

And just like that, I spent the next 50 minutes exploring underwater and saw some sea rays, fish, and seaweed. It was quite a nice first open-water dive through a bit cold in spots. We went to a depth of 15 meters (~45 feet). The second dive was back up the coast by some cliffs and it was a bit shorter and shallower. We went to 10 meters and were underwater for 20 minutes. Which was fine with me because by then I was a bit cold and tired.

It feels good to have done it. I made it happen and get a bit more scuba diving experience for next time. And there will be a next time…

Lots of Falling & A Little Windsurfing

Another remote and I signed up for a two-hour windsurfing lesson on Wednesday afternoon. After getting down to the marina and getting the boards with sails into the water from the beach, the instructor took us out a bit from the shore to show us what to do before we tried.

He made it look easy. But that’s why he’s the instructor.

The next hour and a half involved a lot of falling off the board and hurrying a bit to get back on because there were jellyfish nearby. It was challenging to find my balance on the board, get the board and the sail oriented in the right direction relative to the wind, and then bring the sail up - also relative to the wind and the board.

I did it though! I had a couple of good runs of actually windsurfing mixed in with the 20+ times I fell. And I didn’t get stung or sunburnt.

Next time, hopefully, there will be less falling and more surfing.

Jumping off Heights into Cold Mountain Spring Waters

Thursday was a hot day in Valencia - we got to 104°F. It was also the day I’d signed up for the Remote Year day trip to Moorish Caves & Mountain Springs. In the morning we explored a small village called Bocairent. And then our group went through caves carved into the cliff face that were Moorish storerooms. They were fun to climb through and learn how the Moors built and used them.

After a long two-hour Spanish lunch, we went to the mountain springs which was a river in a canyon that had waterfalls and cold clear pools for swimming. And rocks and cliffs to jump off of into the water. I jumped off several times!

It was super refreshing to go from the hot day into the cold water. And fun to play in the water.