It is one of those bright crisp winter days when I visit Vobster at the start of February. A clear sky with brilliant sunshine, but a bitterly chilling north wind when I get out of the car.It is one of those bright crisp winter days when I visit Vobster at the start of February. A clear sky with brilliant sunshine, but a bitterly chilling north wind when I get out of the car.
Out in the wilds of Somerset it could have been difficult to find, so I made a point of downloading and printing the map from their web site. About half way along the A362 between Radstock and Frome there is a signpost showing Vobster to the south and after winding through a few miles of country roads a dive centre sign marks the final turning.
Vobster was last quarried in the 1950s, soon flooded and was used as a swimming spot and as an informal diving hole up to 1984. It wasn't official; you had to climb over the gate or under the wire, but I did my first ever drysuit dive in Vobster in 1979.
Then came the Trident submarine. A defence company needed a bigger quarry to test sonar systems and in 1984 Vobster was fenced off with some serious barbed wire and all the security you would expect of a defence research facility.
Coming down the hill I can soon appreciate where the MoD had spent our tax money. A new road had been cut through the quarry wall to a tidy waterside quay and the ex-laboratory building is now the dive centre.
I find centre manager Gareth Jones working on the dive shop, due to be opening in a few days. Others are generally brightening up the paint work and getting the classroom finished for the dive school that will be opening in March.
We step outside so Gareth can point out where things are. Bubbles by the quayside grow as a pair of midweek divers surface and exit the water.
There are entry points and exit ladders along about 100 metres of waterfront. Off to the right a gravel path leads to another entry and exit point close to the 6 metre and 9 metre training platforms.
It's a big area of water, 35 acres and looks bigger than I remember it. Only the area from the end of the gravel path back to in front of the quay is buoyed. Working back from the shallow training platforms, buoys mark the remains of the stone crushing works, a tunnel on the quarry track, various quarry buildings, and deeper training platforms down to 33 metres. The intention is that any kneel on the bottom training exercise can be conducted on a suitably deep platform and so avoid stirring up the silt.
For a dive we walk our kit along the gravel path to the entry point by the shallow platforms. We start by heading away from the quay area to the 6 metre training platform. I didn't want to see them all, but thought it worth having a look at one. Anyone who has dived in any of our inland sites will recognise the design, a framework of scaffold poles with a wooden deck.
Visibility is a moderate 6 to 8 metres. Silting is always a problem with inland sites. At Vobster the silt is particularly fine, possibly a consequence of the quarry water once being used to wash out cement lorries. Hence the emphasis on training platforms.
Descending to the old roadway and back towards the quayside we pass the wreck of a car, upside down and well disintegrated. Gareth later tells me he thinks it is a Wolsley 1100.
Soon we come to the old stone crushing works at 16 metres. A mixture of reinforced concrete pits and heavy duty latticed girder work. Its one of the biggest structures I have seen in my limited inland diving experience and offers lots of entertainment possibilities for a training or newly qualified diver.
Nearby is one end of the tunnel. Here we have a quick look about the entrance, but with my photographic mission in mind I had already elected not to swim through it.
The rest of the way along to the quay passes an old quarry blockhouse with just about enough room to turn round inside it before we surface at a small slipway. With the water level stable and just a few inches below the surface exit is easy. Apparently this is already a favoured spot for disabled divers to enter and exit the water.
In addition to the training platforms other features will soon be added. A 42 foot cabin cruiser is due to be sunk at the weekend, then a coach, a double-decker bus, and the almost obligatory Wessex helicopter by the end of March. All will rest on the bottom, save for the helicopter which will be supported on a frame to keep it clear from the silt. All will be shallower than 18 metres, save for the double-decker bus which will be in deeper water.
With parking by the waterside limited to 30 vehicles, there is a kit taxi from the larger upper car park. To avoid early morning queues forming, waterside places can be booked in advance, but are rationed to one per school or club.
As I depart there are ducks paddling about the shoreline hoping for a free snack and a colony of cormorants are sunning themselves on a rock at the opposite side of the water. There must be fish about, but I had not seen any fish on the dive. Gareth lets me in on the secret. Vobster is inhabited by domestic goldfish, but for some reason divers only see them at night.