In August 2007, collecting my son, David, from a Heathrow Airport flight gave me the perfect excuse to dive nearby Wraysbury Lake. Situated between Junctions 13 and 14 of the M25, this 15 acre lake is used solely for diving. Steve of Wraysbury Dive Centre kindly offered to accompany me on this, my dive 1484. The underwater visibility was an acceptable 3 to 4 metres and the water temperature, a balmy 19 degrees Celsius! There are many sunken objects in the lake and hardly had we got in the water than we came across a wreck with a large pike hugging the ceiling. We then slowly made our way around the perimeter of the lake and as we approached one of the exit points near the Dive Centre, I finned over a well concealed and extremely large pike.  Indeed it was so large that for a moment I thought that it must be a model.  Subsequently Steve said that he had never seen such a large pike in the lake.  Unfortunately most of its body was well concealed and its head was buried deep into some weed.  I was wondering how I could possibly take a photograph of this truly huge subject when it suddenly catch sight of me, took fright and disappeared rapidly. By now Steve and I had been underwater for 98 minutes so it was time for us to exit and for me to make a quick dash to Heathrow. I had a feeling that my son would not accept my encounter with the large pike as being an acceptable excuse for being late. 

In November 2008 I returned with Ashford Dive Club buddy, Rick Stewart for my dive 1585. The underwater visibility was an excellent 5 to 8 metres but with a water temperature of 9 degrees, I was pleased that I was wearing my Bare drysuit. Entering the water from a concrete ramp, we came across a couple of platforms, two cabin cruisers and a set of traffic lights.  We also descended into a carefully constructed 14.3 metres deep pit designed to enable novice divers to experience this moderately deep depth. I saw no fish life on this dive whatsoever but “Lucky Rick” saw a small perch!  But kept it all to himself!