Highlights of Wraysbury
Wednesday, 20th September 2006 by Julie
Far too early on a lovely Sunday morning we joined the hordes of divers crowding into the under-sized carpark at Wraysbury Dive Centre – “London’s premiere [only] inland dive site”.
Literally, the single thing to recommend this particular site is its location – within spitting distance of London’s M25 ring-road. Everything else about it is decidely under-par (complete with cringe-worthy porta-loos) — except the scenery. And that doesn’t really count when you’re under water…
The location was what made it the site of choice for our second-to-last training dive. Our briefing that morning was to learn the basics of compass navigation. And the man on hand to cover it with us was our helpful instructor Dave, gallantly giving up his Sunday morning to get us one step further on our Sports Diver qualification.
For our particular training exercise, Wraysbury was an excellent site. Once under the water, the visibility was about 2m at best, so getting the compass readings right was really the only way we were ever going to find our way to the next buoy.
Fortunately we managed to find our way most of the time and Dave was happy to sign us off after about an hour or so of finning around in the upper layers of murk. Then it was time to pack all our stuff away again, get the cylinders filled, and find some lunch!
It didn’t take much imagination to think of a nearby pub that would cater to our needs. Our old favourite, The Royal Oak is also conveniently placed for access from Wraysbury.
Mmm, just what was needed to quench the killer thirst… These went down really well in the balmy heat of a late-summer’s afternoon together with an excellent steak and ale pie.
You have to admit that there are some things they do really well in this country! 
