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i magine a place where you don a snorkel mask and fins, float face down on the gentle waves and admire the colourful view below the surface. It’s highly unlikely that scotland will make it into your dream, yet the clear waters around the island of Barra in the outer Hebrides offer the chance to see an astonishing variety of underwater life. the abundance of sea life around the Barra coastline should come as no surprise. Basking sharks are frequently seen off the coast, dolphins and sea otters can occasionally be spotted from the island’s main road and the seals swimming in many of the island’s secluded bays hint at a rich marine life that few have seen until now.
Barra snorkel safari is run by the Muir Family and started taking guests into the waters off
Barra in 2012. It offers a unique snorkelling experience, with a thermal drysuit ensuring that every part of the body apart from the face is kept dry. Given that the sea temperatures only reach a modest 12°c in the summer months, this appears to be a very sensible plan. snorkel
HaVING a Go
Writer Andy
Jarosz gears up for a session with instructor
Stephen Muir and fellow snorkellers
(BELoW).
To keep the water out, they put on a thermal undersuit followed by a dry suit safaris take place at any one of five snorkelling sites around
Barra, with the choice determined on the day according to weather conditions and the participants’ level of snorkelling experience.
stephen Muir greets me cheerfully and we set off towards Vatersay causeway, the short road linking the island of Vatersay with Barra and the site for our snorkelling adventure. It’s a 10-minute drive and along the way he describes the variety of clients who have been snorkelling with him, including a 73-year-old lady and several people who couldn’t swim; I am greatly reassured by this piece of information.
there are four of us heading into the water this morning and
I quickly appreciate just how much is involved in keeping us warm and dry. In addition to the obvious mask, snorkel and flippers, four
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Samantha Muir is a marine biologist, whose job is to collect bivalve shellfish (such as mussels, cockles and scallops) from harvestable areas and get samples sent away to be tested for toxins or for the presence of e-coli. She’s been diving for 20 years and spent several years in Kenya where she taught at a dive school.
‘We’re really lucky here in Barra as we can see so much marine life by snorkelling that you’d normally have to dive to see. We have dramatic rock formations and an incredible variety of sea life along our coast. the snorkel safari offers something quite different from the typical experience in tropical waters.
My favourite site is at Eoligarry to the north of Barra, where the sands are home to some very interesting species. I’m one of those people who enjoys looking at the little sea creatures and I could spend hours chasing sepiola through the shallow water.’ aBoVE, LEFt aND RIGHt
Professional diver Samantha
Muir takes a young explorer on a Snorkel
Safari sets of thermal undersuits appear on the ground. I supplied my measurements over the phone before I arrived on Barra and my suit has been selected to provide a good snug fit. stephen tells me one of the biggest problems he has to face is when his clients tell him the body size they’d like to be, rather than their actual size. as any mathematician will tell you, 18 into 12 doesn’t go.
the biggest surprise is that apart from my shoes, I don’t have to remove any item of clothing to get into my outfit. there are two suits to put on – I climb into the thermal undersuit easily and zip it up to my neck. the drysuit itself is a much tighter fit, with moulded boots and tight rubber seals around the wrists and neck but with a little help I’m soon dressed and ready to take to the water.
at the foot of the slipway stephen instructs me to sit in the shallow sea water. Nothing appears to be seeping through the suit: this is good news. Putting on the mask and snorkel, I take a gentle swim and feel the water on my face but nowhere else. I feel confident and with stephen constantly checking that I’m oK, we’re ready to set off.
our group swims slowly alongside the causeway, searching the water for anything of interest. Plant life thrives on the rocks and we are soon discovering various types of seaweed including laminaria, bladder wrack and ulva (sea lettuce).
We spot a couple of large starfish and several sea urchins, including one that’s home to a spider crab.
Floating gently on the water, stephen encourages us to relax and enjoy the silence. We watch as a cormorant lands a few metres away and bobs gently on the surface for a moment before diving down in search of his lunch.
It’s at this point in the middle of our snorkel session that I go into a
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HOW TO GET STARTED
Find out about the different snorkelling options at barrasnorkelsafari.co.uk.
GETTinG THERE
Barra is one hour by air from Glasgow (Flybe: flybe.com) or five hours by
CalMac ferry from Oban
(calmac.co.uk). You can arrange a pick-up from any hotel or guesthouse in Barra for your snorkel safari.
WHAT iT COSTS
A standard snorkelling session costs £30 per person, which includes the hire of all snorkelling equipment and your thermal drysuit. You don’t need to bring anything else with you.
WHERE TO STAY
Craigard Hotel
(craigardhotel.co.uk) in the main town of Castlebay offers en-suite double and twin rooms for £110 per night, including a full
Scottish breakfast.
momentary panic: nothing to do with the water temperature or the sudden arrival of a sea monster, but rather the realisation that I have left my wallet and mobile phone in my pockets.
With the reassurance that the thermal dry suit will keep my clothes dry, I had forgotten to empty them.
Most snorkel sessions last about 40 minutes and it’s around this time that I head back to our starting point. Just before leaving the water we take a look at the baskets under the slipway and see a lobster and several crabs, kept here until the fishermen can take them to the local wholesale buyer.
Having only seen lobsters in a restaurant before, it feels strange to encounter one in their domain, not mine.
stepping out of the water I slowly peel off the multiple layers that aBoVE The clear waters around the island of
Barra make for the ideal snorkelling conditions have kept me dry for the past hour. Having removed all my layers I’m relieved to find my valuables are completely unharmed – in fact there isn’t a hint of water on any part of my clothing. as the flask of coffee is passed around our group, we share our tales of underwater discovery.
Having only ever snorkelled when visiting faraway tropical islands, I feel a quiet feeling of satisfaction that I have now explored the sea life in our own distinctly British waters. livingbythecoast.co.uk 111 coast