The quarry is in Llanberis. The road to the quarry is opposite the Snowdon Railway station. Cars can be temporarily parked fairly close to the quarry itself for unloading, but kit must be deposited and cars parked in the main car park. It is a 2-3 minute walk along a flat path from the dive site entry to the water. There are toilets and a changing room in the car park and a cafe in the museum, which is free to enter. On a clear day, the views are spectacular, so Surface Intervals can be enjoyed in a very special way. Entry fee and other information can be found on their website. The quarry is 18 metres deep, but physically about half the size of Dosthill. Being a old slate mine, the visibility is excellent with almost no silt. There are two houses, one of which is not recommended to enter.

Once located at the entry area, we kitted up and went in. Steve suggested I take a delayed SMB for more training - here we go again I thought! Once in, we descended to a platform at about 6m and did an 'out-of-air' drill. Curiously I felt quite apprehensive about it, and found myself breathing hard at the end. For a few minutes after, I was scolding myself for worrying, but then realised that the water was considerably colder than the sea and the reason for my apprehension was probably more to do with that than anything else, so got on with enjoying the dive.

As with all quarries, there are man-made things to see. In this case, there are two houses, a boat and a couple of exercise bikes, which we tried! It is possible to swim right inside the houses, but we were recommended against it as they are crumbling somewhat, so we carefully peered inside one and swam though a safe archway of the other, but ventured no further. All too soon, it was time to surface, at which point I deployed the SMB in the appropriate manner and watched it shoot to the surface. As we surfaced, I reeled in the line and was surprised just how much effort it was to get up and was quite exhausted at the surface. Steve pointed out that I had used 50 bar of air (600 litres) in less than 5 minutes surfacing! I exited with just 50 bar remaining. Worth remembering if you are taking a delayed SMB on a dive.

Adriana was due to dive next with Steve, so I packed my gear and disappeared off to the loo. On my return, I was asked whether I would like a second dive. Oh go on then, if I must! I quickly took the cylinder for a fill, changed and got ready to dive, this time, with Big Dunc. Our plan would be to follow Steve and Adriana who were going in so that Adriana could do her deep dive for the Open Water qualification. Once again, the dive went without problems and we saw the houses and boat, but all too soon we were surfacing again. On the way up, we had our safety stop. Big Dunc started to make strange hand movements to me, which I couldn't understand. Firstly, he clenched his fist and shook it, then opened it flat and finally put two open fingers towards me. What on earth did that mean? Was this some strange message that only BSAC divers understand? No, he wanted a game of Rock-paper-scissors, so we whiled the minutes away playing that!

Second Trip - The North Wales weather is unpredictable at best. We had planned a weekend away for a bit of R 'n' R Peakman style - i.e. full of activity! To be sure of not being disappointed, we took climbing gear, walking gear and diving gear. Our diving day was to be spent at Vivian Quarry. It transpired that, being a Friday, it was quiet, in fact, we were the only divers that day! Superb, we had the place to ourselves. Being 19m at its deepest - and that is in a hole and just 16-17m for the majority, it is quite easy to see everything in a single dive - the quarry is not that big. Major attractions, other than the spectacular location are the two houses and the gnome garden. In addition, there are a couple of small boats, some very old cars, loads of old quarry gear and the promise of eels and large fish, including goldfish, although, having said that, we failed to see any life on either of our two dives, the first being 35 minutes and the second being slightly longer at 39 minutes. The water temperature was a chilly 6 degrees at the bottom. Safety stops were particularly cool! Overall, a good site and well worth diving if you are in the area. We were told us that a lot of divers use it to clean kit off after a trip to the coast - in fact, we replied, that was how we came to visit the first time - on the way home from Anglesey - but that is another story (Treaddur Bay).