Day 5 – Stoney Cove, Leicester

6th November

After saying goodbye to our Scuba Blue friends the previous afternoon, we made our way to Leicestershire. The journey should have taken less than three hours, but the universe

clearly had other plans. Before long, we found ourselves pulled over on the hard shoulder with Rico performing some impromptu motorway mechanics while lorries thundered past. The car’s “check engine” light had flashed on, and closer inspection revealed that the air intake hose had come loose. A quick bit of Google research and a very hasty but skilful repair later, we were back on the road. It was a definitely another stressful moment, especially as we were racing the clock before our campsite shut for the evening. We made it with just three minutes to spare, rewarded not only with relief but also a spectacular fireworks display nearby, to end the day on a high.

The next morning, we headed to Stoney Cove in Leicester. As the name suggests, the site was once a stone quarry, which ceased operation in 1958. After that, natural spring water gradually filled the quarry, and locals began using it for swimming and water sports. In 1978, Stoney Cove Marine Trials Ltd was formed to develop the site for recreational and commercial diving, and the result today is one of the UK’s best- known inland dive locations.

The site’s owner kindly gave us a tour, and we were both blown away by the facilities. Everything a diver could need is on-site from compressors and servicing workshops to classrooms and changing areas. There’s even a beautiful indoor swimming pool used for training, with huge factory-style windows that look directly out over the lake. The light bounces off the water reflecting inside the pool area. And there’s Nemo’s, the on-site pub and café serving great food and drinks. Later in the day we sampled the pizza, coffee and hot chocolate. Sophie was a little disappointed with her hot chocolate but everything else was excellent.

The team at Stoney Cove were incredibly welcoming and generous with their time. They talked us through the various dive routes and key features, helping us plan two dives that turned out to be absolutely packed with things to see. We even spotted a huge ghost carp, said to be over 30 years old, a rare and impressive sight, though sadly just out of Sophie’s camera range. To make up for it, she was thrilled to meet Nessie lurking in the depths!

On the day we visited, there was a bit of algae bloom in the water that affected visibility. It was fascinating to note the temperature difference from the day before. At Vobster we’d had 9°C at 22 metres, but here the water held steady at 14°C throughout the dive, even at depth. Towards the end of the year, the surface water cools faster than the deeper layers, causing the algae to sink. As a result, we still encountered a fair bit of it at 22 metres, which made photography slightly more challenging. The team told us that visibility is best in the winter months when temperatures drop further, so we’ve already started talking about a return visit when we’re on our way back down from Scotland to Cornwall.

Our first dive took us past the Stanegarth, the UK’s largest inland shipwreck. It’s an old steamer that’s been opened up for divers to explore, complete with visible engine parts and easy swim-throughs via its doors and windows. It was definitely one of the highlights of the day. We also swam under the archways below the pub, explored an armoured personnel carrier, and found a beautiful old admiralty anchor beside a wooden boat that had once been sunk in the Thames. Every corner of the quarry seemed to hold another bit of history.

For our second dive, we explored the opposite side of the quarry, a quieter, less- touched area. Here, a shelf at around six metres drops suddenly to 35 metres, the section used for technical and deep diving courses. From there we worked our way down to a 22-metre platform, where we discovered a small van, a sunken light aircraft, and even two sports cars that had apparently starred in a Virgin commercial where they were driven into the quarry for dramatic effect.

That second dive lasted an hour and ten minutes, made possible by our 15-litre tanks giving us plenty of air. The route maps provided by the team were brilliant, clear, detailed, and easy to follow, meaning we could cover a lot of ground without fear of missing anything.

We came away from Stoney Cove thoroughly impressed. The staff were friendly, knowledgeable, and clearly passionate about what they do. The facilities were impressive, from the dive shop stocked with everything that you could possibly need to the great food at Nemo’s. It’s a perfect site for training and exploring. With thoughts already bubbling about returning in December for that crisp winter visibility, we packed up our kit, headed back to the campsite, and began planning our next stop on The Great Scuba Drive.