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Having spent the usual winter in England
so that Terry could earn some decent money refitting ferries in
dry dock, we now had to decide which way our travels would take
us this year. The original plan was to go to the Baja Peninsular
in Mexico but after much e-mailing various locations around the
world, we landed a job in Paphos in Cyprus. As we loved Greece
so much we naturally (wrongly) assumed we'd love Cyprus as well.
So, on the 11th April 2000 we left England again with high hopes
after being offered a job with accommodation included and a reasonable
salary. We flew through the night, then had a very fast taxi ride
through the dawn to our shared apartment in Paphos. We slept the
day away and in the afternoon, met our flatmates, Lee and Eliot,
and the English lady partner/owner of the dive shop. All seemed
fine - even the Cypriot owner George seemed OK. The next day we
were due to start work and were driven to the hotel where the
dive shop was, by Eliot in the company Montego. On arrival at
the dive shop, things started to change for the worse. The equipment
was old and worn out, none of the regulators had Alternate Air
Sources of any description. There were no indications that the
shop had any affiliation to PADI, even though we were assured
over the phone that it was. On top of this, the boss, George,
is annoyingly late. On his arrival (one hour later), George proceeded
to lay down the law to us on all his do's and dont's. It turned
out that Intro Dives were not PADI ones but ones he had devised.
There would be hardly any proper courses for Tracy to teach, and
we wouldn't be diving the Zenobia, which was a shame as it's the
only thing really worth diving in these parts as there are very
few fish left in the Mediterranean; and on this issue of fish,
yes, of course we would be expected to encourage our divers to
feed them! Terry jokingly said "I suppose you will want us
to break open live Sea Urchins to feed the fish as well…"
to which George replied, "of course! The fish do not know
how to feed themselves". We looked at each other with amazement
at this last statement, then both picked up our dive bags and
walked out of the shop, signifying to George that he could poke
his job. Needless to say, we instantly got evicted from our apartment
(but Lee and Eliot insisted we left our bags until we found ourselves
somewhere else to stay).
So, unemployed and with nowhere to call
home, we did the obvious thing. We went to the pub. A very English
place called "The Bobby's Helmet" where we discussed
our plight with the owners over a pint or two.
They instantly rallied round and telephoned
a friend and with in the hour we were renting a luxury villa with
swimming pool for a very reasonable price!. The next day Tracy
sent Terry off to hire a small car so we could get around the
island and look for gainful employment. As luck would have it
he got offered a vehicle he just couldn't refuse at the first
shop he went to! He triumphantly returned to the luxury villa
where Tracy looked on in amazement as he pulled up, not in a Fiat
Punto as expected, but a 2.8 litre Turbo Diesel Mitsubishi Pajero!
After a few trips out to the Troodos Mountains
and a snowball fight on Mount Olympus, we headed to Limassol to
find a job, and as luck would have it once again, we were offered
a job at the second dive shop we stopped at called Crest Watersports.
Due to start work the following week, we made the best of our
luxury for just a while longer before hopping in a taxi from Paphos
to Limassol and start our new job.
We moved into our own apartment after
a week at Crest and begin to settle into a routine, but after
diving in tropical seas last year, we soon got tired of diving
in the Mediterranean, especially as the only really good dive
was the Zenobia Wreck and Crest only dived
it on special request. This together with the fact that the majority
of the work was Discover Scuba Diving and very few courses, we
decided that, after 7 weeks, we needed to see coral and fish.
So the obvious choice was to bid farewell to all the friends we
had made at Crest Diving and Watersports Centre (Alex, George,
Elias, Surge, Dave, Danial and Anna, Millie
and Alfie) and head off to Israel, and the Red Sea...! top
ZENOBIA
Located just half a mile off the harbour
of Larnaca in Cyprus, lies on it's port side totally intact. This
Swedish built Ro-Ro ferry, which is 178m long and weighs 10,000
tonnes, sank on 7th June 1980 after an error in it's computerised
ballasting system causing it to list heavily to port. Eventually
sinking whilst at anchor on it's maiden voyage with a full cargo
of 108 articulated lorries. This is, for all intense and purposes,
a deep dive and should be treated with care as the average divers'
air seems to diminish very rapidly. Only Terry had the opportunity
to dive this wreck. It's generally dived in two dives with at
least a three-hour surface interval between them. Firstly there
is a short boat journey from the harbour, then a giant stride
entry. You generally go to the bow section first dropping past
the bridge and onto the sea bed to have a nose at the life boats
scattered about. Ascending slowly along to the midships coming
up between the funnels and up to around 17m and work your way
back along the starboard side to your mooring line, where it is
advisable to hang for a nice long safety stop before you surface.
The second dive, after a good long surface interval, starts around
midships, but this time you drop over to what would have been
the underside of the boat, heading to the stern for a look at
the two huge variable pitch propellers (which make ideal photo
opportunities). Unfortunately, Terry didn't take his camera with
him on these dives as he had customers with him who required looking
after and a camera would only hinder him. From the propellers,
head round and slowly up through the stern doors where you will
be greeted by a mass of articulated lorries, still very intact.
It's worth swimming slightly off the wreck to get the whole scene
in perspective. From there, head back to the funnels and up to
the starboard side and then back to the mooring line for yet another
long safety stop at 5m. There is not a great deal of marine life
on this wreck apart from some jacks and barracuda, but that's
the Mediterranean for you! However, the wreck itself is excellent,
as is the visibility, and is probably one of the top wreck dives
in the world. Definitely one of the only reasons to dive around
Cyprus. top
AKROTIRI PENINSULAR
The Akrotiri Peninsular is home to the
British Royal Air Force. Therefore, the waters around it are deemed
to be Sovereign Territory, and thus permission has to be granted
to enter it. This is generally not a problem as long as there
are no exercises going on. The site is only about 6m deep with
just a sandy bottom with patches of turtle grass. As it is used
as a training site for the military, they have managed to spice
it up a bit by sinking a helicopter, a couple of canons and a
fire truck. There are quite a few fish on this site including
two bar bream and a few octopus. The peninsular is about 30 minutes
boat journey from the Crest Diving Centre and we would use this
site for Discover Scuba Divers in the afternoon after a morning’s
pool session. The visibility is good and the depth and fairly rich
marine life make it a perfect place for first time divers. But
it’s not really a place for the more experienced diver. Another
high point was that whilst we were there, so were the Red Arrows
Display team, based in Akrotiri and often as not we were treated
to a free air show. All things taken into consideration, we generally
had a good day out at Akrotiri, especially if Brendan was driving
the boat!! top
DIANA WRECK
This is the site of a 35 ft yacht which
sank on it’s way into the marina at the St Raphael Marina
in Limassol. It is only about a 10 minute boat journey from the
marina and therefore is a popular dive site for Crest Diving.
Whilst we were there, Brendan usually skippered the boat out for
us and often as not, free-dived down to retrieve the mooring line
that’s attached to the wreck, as he’s good like that!!
The wreck bottoms out at 22m and is a fairly pretty little site
with orange basslets in profusion all around the mooring line.
You can swim through the yacht. Down through the companion way
along the galley and out one of the hatches in the fore peak.
It is a bit of a squeeze and there are also a few Scorpion Fish
around the wreck - so beware. Maximum time on this wreck is about
30 minutes not because of decompression limits, more to do with
boredom than anything else! top
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