Delivering some furniture to my son, David, in Manchester in October 2006 gave me the perfect opportunity to dive Jackdaw Quarry. This well known dive site is located just over 60 miles north of Manchester near Carnforth in Lancashire. Capernwray Dive Centre established itself at this disused and abandoned old flooded quarry in 1995.

Leaving my home in Folkestone, Kent at 7.50 am and with only the briefest stops for petrol and refreshment, I battled through the traffic to reach Jackdaw Quarry at 1.40 pm. My dive guide for the dive (my dive 1329) was Dave Baugh. Dave is a key man in the Capernwray Dive Centre team and has a wealth of experience from a lifetime in diving. The underwater visibility at 7 to 10 metres was excellent and the fish life superb. As soon as we entered the water we were greeted by Rainbow and Brown Trout in the shallows. I had selected a 17-55mm lens for this dive but under the circumstances, the 60mm lens would have been far better. Dave and I finned past many of the underwater attractions including two “horse statues” called Shergar and Lord Lucan. Other fish that we encountered underwater were Perch, Pike and Roach. As we made our way back to the shallows one of the members of the Capernwray Dive Centre team threw some bread into the water and a frenzy of activity took place all around me as the Trout seized the bread from the surface of the water, two Trout crashing into me in their haste to get their meal.

With friendly and helpful staff, a well-equipped dive shop and first class changing facilities and a bar and a restaurant, this is a Dive Centre that I would very much like to visit again.