25th November 2012
by Richard Booth and Kevin Thompson
Setting off from home at 8:30am in the morning with the heavy rain pounding off the car roof and windscreen, one began to perhaps question the sanity of a journey over to Caprenwray for a dive. Approaching Scotch Corner and with no apparent let up in the volume of rain we were greeted by the news that the A66 was closed due to heavy flooding blocking the road. What to do? Surely any committed diver would be prepared to drive any amount of miles to get their faces wet?
Having come so far, and it has to be admitted with a degree of some reluctance, we chose to head across to Ellerton via an interesting route where we knew we were sure to be able to dive. After all this concentrated rain would we be greeted by an empty car park and muddy brown lake? Or would fortune prevail and might we find ourselves diving a crystal clear windswept blue lagoon?
Eventually we arrived to find a few vehicles in the car park including the catering van. What state would the water be in? Whilst we did not get to dive a blue lagoon the water surprisingly wasn’t brown but more of a light green.
We opted for a full breakfast butty and a hot drink whilst plucking up the enthusiasm to kit up and dive the lake.
Suddenly the rain stopped, the dark clouds parted, the sun appeared and blue skies became visible. Things were looking up. Our blue moods picked up and we donned our drysuits!
Kitted up we leaped purposefully into the water and headed down the lines, eventually reaching the sunken Primera car wreck. From here we continued on out to the transit van, before following the line on further out into the depths of the lake, pausing to examine the interior of the estate car before moving on to the small wreck of the sunken yacht.
We then headed over to the sunken caravan, before making the return journey carefully following the maze of rope lines back to the entry point.
With Kev’s drysuit leaking, and with time pressing on, we opted for just the one dive on this occasion. That said, despite the recent heavy rain the underwater visibility in Ellerton proved better than expected. But what of the secret of the green lagoon? Well for now that will have to remain just that… a secret.