Norway 2009

We weren't the first to have travelled to Norway to go diving on the "Jane R", but none of us had done it before, and it was a bit of adventure. Ted was a Norwegian regular, visiting on an almost annual basis to go Telemark skiing, but hadn't ventured into Norwegian waters before.

The late evening trip across on Norwegian Air was uneventful, and we got into Bergen airport as it started to get (not very) dark. The taxi ride from the airport was eye-watering - I've never seen a 20 minute taxi ride clock up almost UKP 80 before at that rate. This was a sobering introduction to the high cost of liveing in Norway including around UKP 8.00 for a standard almost-a-pint of beer.

We had planned the trip together with some nice people from Wantage BSAC, and we met up with them after a night in a Bergen hotel. One of our companions on the trip, Bill Larnach, has written an excellent blog entry on our holiday, and I will now refer you to that, rather than fail to write something to the same standard. Bill Larnach's Blog

In a similar vein, there is also a report of a different trip on the BSAC Travel Site, or you could check out the "Jane R" website itself divenorway.com, which contains a wealth of information about the wrecks to be dived..

The Good Parts.

  • With the exception of a single thunder shower, and a couple of foggy mornings, the weather was wall-to-wall blue skies for the entire 8 days.
  • The sea was almost flat calm for the same time.
  • All of the scenery was chocolate-box-pretty all week.
  • There was an interesting variety of life, including seals and sea eagles.
  • The skipper kicked us off the boat for "walkies" on a daily basis, always finding something interesting for us to see.
  • The skipper was vastly enthusiastic and passionate about Norway and the diving.
  • The wrecks were world class, and better, with good visibility.
  • Surface water temperature was about 15 degrees
  • The days were sooo long. It was always light enough to read a paper or book outside after midnight. The sun was up before 04:00. It just never got dark.

The Bad Parts

  • Water temperature at dive depth (25 metres) was 8 or 9 degrees.
  • The dirty, hot, and cramped boat represented everything that was wrong with British diving 15 years ago.
  • Typically, I got a cold three days after flying, and missed two days diving.
  • Norway was outrageously expensive.
  • The food on the boat was very basic, but nourishing. There were no "yum" moments.
  • there was a murky layer above 20 metres, so you had to dive deeper to get good visibility, which got up to 20m.
  • The days were sooo long. It was always light enough to read a paper or book outside after midnight. The sun was up before 04:00. It just never got dark.

Sadly, the airline baggage allowances didn't permit me to take all my cold water diving gear and my underwater camera but I got some great surface shots, including the panorama below.

Mark Mumford

This page was last updated on : 09 Sep 2018