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Those hoping for a well earned lie-in were disappointed. A Jeep Safari was booked and we were to be picked up at 8.25am. The Jeeps arrived and the roofs were taken off as the day was going to be a scorcher. We were then taken up Mount Teide were we were told all about the history of the volcanic eruptions and got to see the amazing caldera at Las Cañadas. The Mount Teide volcano sits at 3718m. This can be reached by cable car or a long walk, if a permit has been applied for. Our tour took us to 2000m at Las Cañadas. This huge bowl, 17km across, was created when the magma chamber beneath the volcano collapsed. This happened about 150,000 years ago.

We learnt about the flora and fauna of the volcano, some of which is unique to the area.

Plants:

• Teide burgloss
• Teide flixweed
• Teide white broom
• Teide daisy
• Teide violet
• The Canary Pine

Reptiles:

• Canary lizard
• Canary dragon gecko
• Canary skink

Birds:

• Canary Island chaffinch
• Kestrels
• Great grey strike
• Buzzard
• Mammal species are rarer, with the difficulty in reaching the island but there are a number of bat species. All other mammals have been introduced by man.

Sealife seen:

• Parrot fish
• Arrow crabs
• Trumpetfish
• Lizard fish
• Puffer fish
• Blue fin damselfish
• Atlantic blenny
• Ornate wrasse
• Zebra bream
• Sponges
• Fire worms
• Cuttle fish
• Sea cucumbers
• Star fish
• Runcador grunts
• Sea urchins
• Barracuda
• Moray eels
• Mullet
• Atlantic ray
• Angel shark
• Pen shell

Last day of diving, back to a 7.30am wake up. There were some very tired looking people at breakfast. Another great day saw the Dive Leaders and Sports Divers practising what they had learnt earlier in the week by leading the Ocean Divers, under the watchful eyes of the instructors. Dive 9 saw us diving The Wall, another lava wall and pavement. Another relaxing sunbathing/warming up session in the sun was had over lunch while we off gassed from the mornings dive. This became more important as the week went on as deeper dives were done each day. Dive 10 climaxed in an amazing wreck dive called El Meridian. The Dive leaders and Sports Divers had dived this earlier in the week and so were familiar with the dive and led us around with confidence. Now we had to go back to the dive centre to do the final washing of kit. Back to the hotel for a couple of hours spent by the pool, showering, writing up dives and getting ready for supper. After supper theory tests were carried out before bed time.

Another later start although as we had some theory to do so an 8am breakfast followed by half an hour of theory before we set off for dives 7 and 8. The Ocean Divers carried out a dive which led them back to El Condesita. I was busy looking at an octopus when everyone else was looking at an Atlantic ray, I was very disappointed! A much warmer lunchtime break saw everyone sunbathing and warming up nicely. Dive 8 - Coral Arches saw a number of amazing underwater arches. As well as this a small cave with gnomes in the back and a beautiful jewel anemone.

>An 8.30am start today meant a much needed lie-in. At last sun meant that we were a lot warmer and managed to warm up between dives. Today the two boats would be going to different dive sites to allow for the different experience and skills needed by the different qualifications. I was with the Ocean Divers and we visited Sharks Cave for dive 5. This was a lovely swim through the cave. Inside the cave were glass eye fish and a large puffer fish. We swam over the top of the cave where our air, which we exhaled inside the cave, was slowly seeping out through the porous rocks creating an underwater Jacuzzi. Dive 6 was a trip to The Rays but we were rather disappointed as unusually this year the rays seem to have disappeared, normally you are surrounded by Atlantic rays looking for a tickle, even the resident turtle failed to come to say hello. The others saw an angel shark during their second dive which was at Atlantic Reef. The evening saw another trip to the supermarket as sweetie supplies were starting to run out, as was the water! As well as this there were dive debriefs to be carried out as well as writing up the days dives. Everyone was pleased when bed time came.

Another 7.30am start, with strict instructions to turn up to breakfast, saw a few stragglers but everyone eventually appeared. A slightly warmer day but still cloudier than we had hoped. Dive 3 was at The Steps. This is an amazing series of underwater lava columns which create a series of 'steps'. More skills were carried out. After lunch and more hot chocolate we headed to a wreck called El Condesita which was at a depth of 17m. As before kit needed to be washed before we could head back to our hotel. After a shower and supper we met up to do a debrief and then free time with some much needed relaxation.

A 7.30am alarm call, followed by an 8am breakfast saw some rather bleary eyed souls, I had warned them! An overcast day led to a cold day of diving. At 8.45am we headed off to the dive centre to meet up with Geoff Bidwell from Atlantic Divers and were given wetsuits to try on. This caused some hilarity as people squeezed into suits that were too small or in some cases too big. Our kit was assembled and packed into vans and we were then off to the harbour. Two RIBS were to be used with the Ocean Divers plus two of the adults in one and everyone else in the other.  We carried out two dives that day; Yellow Mountain and Westhaven Bay. The Ocean Divers were split into two groups and were led by either Geoff or his daughter Kerry. Dive 1 was a familiarisation dive for all, whereas dive 2 saw everyone carrying out some of the skills they had learnt in the pool - mask clearing and air sharing. Between dives we sat in a restaurant where we tried to warm up. The lack of sun made this difficult and there was some reluctance to do the second dive. However hot chocolates were ordered and everyone cheered up. After the diving we went back to the centre to wash our kit and then back to the hotel for hot showers and supper. Writing up dives and a trip to the supermarket to get water after supper meant there wasn't a lot of free-time however there were a number of very tired people and there was much less reluctance to have an early night. Indeed many were in bed asleep before lights out.

On 4 April 14 students and 4 adults headed to Tenerife for the annual sub-aqua training expedition. The students comprised 9 Ocean Diver (the first qualification from the British Sub-Aqua Club - BSAC) trainees, 3 Sports Diver trainees (the second qualification) and 2 students working towards their Dive Leader qualification (the third qualification and the first step towards becoming an instructor). Having carried out theory lessons and pool sessions prior to the trip everyone was looking forward to getting into the sea and putting what they had learnt into practise.

Having checked the weather forecast before we were looking forward to sun and were disappointed to discover it was cloudy. This was the evening however and we hoped for better weather in the morning. We checked into our hotel, had supper and then were off for an early night, which caused a few moans.