GRAND CAYMAN

(To view pictures of this trip simply click on the thumbnails. The images are extracted from the DIVEPAINT DVD “Diving Grand Cayman”)

Grand Cayman is the largest of the Cayman Islands that lie in the western Caribbean 150 miles south of Cuba. We spent 2 weeks at the Cayman Dive lodge located at East End which is sparsely populated and well away from the tourist area that centres around 7 mile beach This dive lodge offers excellent accommodation and diving facilities with 2 powerful launches that take you out of the lagoon to the 15 mile long, horseshoe shaped barrier reef that wraps itself around the east end of the island. We enjoyed diving in crystal clear water with a surface temperature of 27°C. Corals and sponges that grow prolifically down to considerable depths on the reef bears witness to the cleanliness and clarity of the seas around the island. Plate corals, barrel corals and tube sponges vie with gorgonian fans and strap corals for every scrap of space on the sides of the deep fissures and ravines that are etched into the face of the reef.

During the day, shoals of Tarpon lurk in the shadows of the coral overhangs and caves and crabs and spiny lobsters crouch on ledges and holes in the cave walls.

Grand Cayman’s most famous dive site is Sting Ray City. Large rays congregate in the sandy shallows of a lagoon to be fed on tit-bits of squid from divers and tourists who come each day to thrill at this close encounter.