Diving in Zeeland

Zeeland was the place to be this weekend, with lots of diving and info on marine biology ahead of us! I took Friday off so I could get my new passport and drivers' licence and pack my bag. After a long trip I finally arrived in Burgh-Haamstede where we were staying for the weekend. The marine biology weekend is organised by Oceanus, which is owned by Inez, who was our instructor for the weekend. We had a lovely pasta for dinner and after a who is who introduction it was time for our first lecture about the plants and animals that live in the waters of Zeeland. There is so much more to see than I first thought and so many names to learn (I have to admit that even after 5 lectures I still forget most of the names and just see a plant/animal and think, oh yeah that was the one that blends into the environment... well, just keep practicing I guess). After a good breakfast the next morning it was time to head towards the water and see what we could find : D I had some trouble adjusting my bouyancy in the very shallow waters (about 2-3 metres) and when we were turning to head back to the shore I had used about 80 bar of air, which made me so light I couldn't stay under water anymore : (  I felt very sorry for Wiebe, my way more experienced buddy. We surfaced a long way from the shore and had to swim all the way back on the surface (which is quite tiring). Fortunately for us the weather had cleared up quite a bit and with some sun shining it wasn't too bad a cruise. Time to check out some of the plants and animals that were placed in plastic containers and learn a bit more about them. Very interesting! After lunch time for some more lectures and in the evening Harry and Bert talked to us about night diving (in a very funny way, they could be in a slapstick) after which it was time for my very first nightdive! I was a bit nervous, especially since the dive in the morning didn't go too well. Fortunately for me my dive buddy was Wiebe again and he has dived a lot in Zeeland and has done quite some night dives. He navigated us to all the best places and since I had 2 more kg's of lead on my weightbelt there were no bouyancy problems this time. Visibility wasn't too bad and thanks to Wiebes light there was lots to see (mine flooded and so not a lot of light there...). We ended up directly at the jetty so no more surface swimming! One of the things I really need to learn in Thailand is to navigate, without it you're lost everytime. Back at the group accomodation we filled in our log books and had a nice chat. I ended up in bed at 3.30 and got up at 8.30 ready for another lovely day. The sun was shining, another lecture and another dive to go! The visibility wasn't too great, but there was an awesome wall filled with life, so we had a brilliant dive. I ended up on the surface a bit early again, since I did'nt have that much air to begin with (plenty for this shallow dive), which made me too light to stay down, even being pulled down by Wiebe didn't help (its very shallow near the shore only 1,5-2 meters so being underweighted for only a kilo is a problem) so we left the water about 15 min early. A shame, but still a lovely dive. The weather was brilliant and since Geru (my driver, he was so nice to give me a lift to all the dive sites) and I were back first at the accomodation we had plenty of time to clean our gear and pack our bags etc. The weekend ended with a visit to Neeltje Jans a park where you can experience the deltaworks of Zeeland. We looked at the tide pools and gardens on the dike. Maarten and his girlfriend were heading towards Rotterdam and had space left in the car, so they dropped me off at Lombardije station and luck was with me because the train to Haarlem left in 10 min! A lovely weekend and now time to wash all my stuff and get some extra sleep!