There is no shortage of special outdoor activities to enjoy in Orkney.
From coasteering to kayaking, and boat tours to bird watching, there’s plenty of reasons to get out and about in the islands. But if you’re up for something completely different then it might be time to don a drysuit and grab a glimpse beneath the waves.
Local dive school, Kraken Diving, is now offering guided snorkel safaris from shore and boat, adding to its regular Discover Scuba Diving sessions and dive courses.
We’ve been finding out more from Kraken Diving’s Margot Watson.
Where did the idea for the Snorkel Safaris come from?
We essentially wanted to start running Snorkel Safaris to get more people interested in getting in the water.
We will always want to promote diving and encourage more and more people to get underwater, but we know that it can look a bit intimidating with all the equipment. So, we wanted to take a step back and get people excited about being in the water and seeing marine life, but seeing it from the surface first. As we have all the drysuits for diving, it made sense to offer snorkels to those wanting to stay on the surface while wearing them to keep toasty warm.
Drysuits are lovely and floaty as well, which means those with less confidence in swimming can get involved too. They allow you to stay floating on the surface without any effort to tread water.
There are some special diving locations in Orkney – where will you be taking people on their safaris?
We have two ways of doing the Snorkel Safaris - from shore or from a boat.
From the shore, our most popular location is the Churchill Barriers. You can swim right up to the wartime blockships here and marine life has made its home on these wrecks, as well as on the Barriers themselves, so they have become artificial reefs and nurseries. You can spot sea urchins, starfish, various types of fish, crabs, all things that have made these wrecks their homes.
When heading out on the boat, we take a tour of the cliffs around the coast. As we go from Stromness Harbour, we often go past the Hoy hills trying to spot any birdlife we can on the way (with fingers always crossed for cetaceans!). Depending on the wind direction, we jump into the water whenever it looks good to do so. Last year we got to swim with some seals near Cava and around the sea stack at the Calf of Flotta, but there are loads of places around the coast where the fun of jumping into the water to see what lies beneath the waves is just waiting to be had.
The boat tours add an extra element of excitement, what’s it like to be able to offer these?
We love getting the chance to head out on the boat to escape the rush of everyday life. This was something we began last year after realising that using the boat to see marine life shouldn't only be limited to divers.
Everyone that has come on a boat snorkel day with us has been super positive and excited. Encounters with marine life away from shore are always special, and I know a few folk really loved seeing seals swim underneath them. It’s such a bonus to be able to escape the outside world by spending time looking around the natural environment.
Our skipper is always amazing at finding exciting places for us to jump in and is ready with a cuppa to help warm you up when you come out too.
You also offer night snorkels and night dives. How much of a different experience are these?
Night diving is something that we love to do during the off season, as (unlike a lot of places in the world) we can go for a night dive in the middle of the afternoon in Orkney! As we extended our season a bit this year, we decided to offer this out to both divers and snorkelers.
Viewing marine life through the light of a torch often means you see more and move less, as you are focusing just on where your torch is highlighting. You also get to see things you would never spot during the day. Prawns love to scuttle across the floor without any bother, squab lobsters sit on the blocks at the Barriers for you to marvel in their bright colours, and - if you are really lucky - a tiny bobtail squid might pop out of the sand in time for you to see it.
Safety is always at the heart of everything you do, what kind of precautions do you have in place for night activities?
‘Safety first, safety second’ is always something we live by.
The main thing in everything we do, including night activities, is keeping group numbers small. We aren't a dive school that piles in the numbers because we want each individual diving or snorkelling with us to have the best experience they can while in our care. For us, it's about the quality of the experience.
We always have someone on the shore the whole time people are in the water so there is someone ready to assist if anyone gets out the water early and to light the way back to the van.
You still offer your core services like the Discover Scuba Diving sessions too, how important was it to you to be able to expand what’s available for visitors to Orkney?
Orkney has always been a bucket list place for the divers of the world with the German High Seas Fleet wrecks in Scapa Flow. But we always strive to make the Orkney waters accessible to more than just those qualified to dive.
We want to show locals and visitors what is on our doorstep with the hope that they will come to love and appreciate it as much as we do, and maybe even become future ocean ambassadors to help protect it.
But we will always want to adapt to the needs and wants of ocean lovers, whether people are keen to stay on the surface of the water, try going underwater for the first time, or want to learn more skills while diving through a range of courses.
How would you encourage anyone who isn’t 100% sure or totally confident about getting into the water to take the plunge?
For us, the ocean is our happy place. It's a place where you can escape the hectic ways of life and completely slow down. You can't get phone calls or messages or check your social media; you are completely immersed in a new world.
When snorkelling, you lie on the surface of the water and view the marine life in its own world. When diving, you can't think about anything other than diving so all the stresses of life dissolve in the water.
Snorkelling, especially, is a wonderful way to experience the underwater world if you aren't confident about being in the sea. As we do it all in drysuits it becomes, as we say in our briefings, lazy-man swimming, as you occasionally kick yourself forward to see the next bit of life.
We also want to take it at your level of pace, we never want people to feel rushed getting into their drysuits or like they have to stay in the water as long as everyone else. It's your experience and we’re here to help make it as safe and special as possible.
Find out more about Kraken Diving and its Snorkel Safaris on the official website. You can also find Kraken Diving on Facebook and Instagram.