DOTTY

Six in the morning and I'm sitting in a car on the way to Dotty ..... Must be mad! A brief stop at the golden arches for a coffee and to pile some layers on the heart and were heading into the Welsh mountains past Nantle and up the pitted road to the top of cardiac hill. The bonus is that in Julian's car he drives past the rocks and down to the landing strip.

Preparing for the first dive

View over Dotty

Dotty looks wonderful (as ever). It is sheltered from the strong winds and is surrounded by cloud shrouded mountains. The view itself is worth the trip.
Today rather than heading straight to the tunnel we head off to the left following the weed line round and the old road downwards into a 40 meter deep section. Passing 30 meters I stopped to look up and can see the cliff stretching upwards in steps as it disappears into the green light. An amazing view with the wall showing a selection of different coloured stripes. Browns, greens, grey-blues add to the magnificent spectacle. We swim on descending to the base of this pit where several abandoned cars have been dumped including a Nissan Warrior, upside down yet still recognisable and probably one of the newer models.
The route now veers steeply upwards so we slowly ascend through a ravine in the fractured rock slope. Heading right we skirt the landing strip keeping to about 10meters and carry on round to the crane which hangs precariously over the drop into the void. Amazing visibility allowed me to see the crane in full view. Making our way back to the landing strip we completed a swimming safety stop.
Back on shore coffee, sandwiches and mars bars finished off the first dive of the morning.

Between dives

Driving up cardiac hill

The second dive was an old favourite down to the tunnel. We cruised downwards and floated through the tunnel, turning right over to the marina van. Having had a play we made our way back to landing stage