By Iván Budnik
The Plan
How do you start the diving season in style? You organise a 6-day, warm-water diving trip to sunny Cyprus! That’s the Clidive way, at least.
Picture it: six days in a row of warm water training and fun diving, with the opportunity to tag on a visit to the Zenobia, and the fantastic company of other Clidivers. Four adjacent villas with luxurious amenities, four vehicles to carry 18 divers + gear + cylinders around the island, and a friendly local fill shop to support all our diving needs. Perfect, right?
To avoid making this post too long, I’ll share my favourite days and throw in some free extra stories. Those of you that do want the full details in a 5500-word monstrosity of a post feel free to send me a message :)
Sunday: The excitement,the chaos and the underwater sculptures
Sunday was set to be an exciting day! Officially the first day of diving, both fun and training dives were scheduled to happen. And with that, all the associated faff of getting gear ready for the first time..
After an informative brief from Debbie about the day and week ahead, we all lined up to collect our combined 100Kg+ of weights and 30-something cylinders. Safe to say we pretty much emptied the shop. Loaded up, we made our way to Green Bay, our training base
After a bit of off-roading, Green Bay greeted us with plenty of space to set up camp. Amenities were modest and we were sharing some of the space with the local dive schools, but the scenery made up for it. It also benefited from a gravel shore where we could park and kit up, some semi-comfortable rocks where we could sit down and debrief and a lookout spot for on-land site recon and the shore cover.
Surrounding us was the clear blue sea, and while the temperature was in the moderate low-20’s, the sun was certainly strong and blessed some with dive-shaped sunburns.
By midday we were in the water. The bay opened up to rolling ‘meadows’ of sea grass and growth on some boulders. Visibility was about 15-20 metres, and the water was a pleasant 19ºC. We explored the shallow bottom, never more than 8m deep [Ed: actually 9.5m!] and averaging 5m with all the mini rifts and valleys. The current made the sea grass slowly dance back and forth, sometimes taking you with it too. We spotted the occasional sea urchin and curious boxfish, and waved at the lionfish respectfully from afar. 41 minutes and a weight check at the surface later, our dive was done. Needless to say, I was quite overweighted :)
Our second fun dive site was in a different location: Pernera Beach. We still had to pack gear and cylinders, hopefully find something for lunch and drive to the dive site. For some, training was to continue at Green Bay. After the quickest lunch stop in the world at Mr. Tzatziki’s, we headed to our new dive site.
Pernera Beach was our base to access the MUSAN Underwater Museum. 200m from the shore, it hosts 93 sculptures in 7-10m of water. According to the website, ‘MUSAN is an underwater forest, the first of its kind in the world, aimed at transforming a barren stretch of sand into a thriving marine environment.’
Getting there was a challenge, though. We kitted up in the beach car park and started our voyage to the dive site. First, a 70m walk to the lifeguard lookout via a paved promenade, then onto the beach and 30m through the sand; once in the sea, a shallow 100m swim to a breakwater and finally 100m more to the buoy marking the entrance to the museum. Once underwater, there was more swimming until you saw the first sculpture, and then the actual entire exhibition. Proper leg day.
Of the three buddy pairs, Gabriel and I were the last to go in, so we had the luxury of others finding the route for us. Past 4 p.m. we headed to the water. Once at the bottom of a sandy gully between the rocks, we could faintly see human-like figures ahead . As we got closer, they became clearer: adults, children, trees and weird combinations of all three. The exhibition continued along a narrow ‘runway’ a few metres wide and then stopped abruptly, leaving us with the wide-open emptiness of the seabed. Quite beautiful, yet eerie. Some of the ‘trees’ had branches connected with chains, so they would sway with the current. Some statues were of school children filming other statues with handheld video cameras., making me feel slightly uneasy.
At 5 p.m. we eventually surfaced and slowly made our way back. Since we were running quite late, one pair took a car to return all the available cylinders while Gabriel and I were still in the water. They were in such a rush that they also left with my bag, including dry clothes, towel, shoes, phone, wallet, etc. I stoically returned home barefoot, and was eventually reunited with my belongings. Fun times.
Wednesday: The night dive and the mystery of the missing allen key
On Wednesday, our plans were foiled. What was supposed to be a day of fun RIB diving for those not diving the Zenobia ended up being a busy day of training at Green Bay. On the good side, Romain and I were still missing a couple of skills to sign off, which we could complete on our first dive. After a quick AS swim and an end-of-dive weight check, we had completed all our skills. And not just that, Romain became the first newly qualified diver of the trip! On my side, I still needed a few experience dives for my Sports Diver qualification.
In the meantime, rumours of a night dive were spreading. The DM established clear conditions: a minimum number of divers and someone to act as shore cover. If we could find that, the night dive would happen that evening. Fortunately, Elaine stepped in and gave up the peace and quiet of her evening to help us, Nick volunteered too and a few other divers signed up to complete the group.
We scavenged for torches and headed off to Green Bay, arriving with just enough daylight to get our gear ready and hear the briefing. This was my first night dive and so I had to learn different signals and safety procedures. But then, disaster struck: my DIN insert was leaking and the right allen key was nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the luxury of all the spares stored in our club van parked some 3,000 km away.
We kept searching and tried jerryrigging it for a good half hour, until I started to accept my fate. A few really kind divers offered me their cylinder so I could have my first night dive and also check off one of my experience dives. Amidst all of that drama, Nick double checked his pockets and an allen key set materialised in his hand. We quickly swapped the insert, checked again for leaks and my kit was good to go. Crisis averted.
The dive itself was a wonderful experience. Having seen Green Bay a lot of times already, the change in conditions gave it a completely different feel. There was a lot more life than in the day, in terms of both quantity and species. The dull grey cornetfish we had seen every day transformed into strips of neon-like reflective patterns. The seagrass ‘meadows’ were illuminated by the strobe set at the entrance of the bay to help us find our way back, with the flashes giving it a somewhat sinister look. I was surprised to see how far the light traveled underwater. Even if you couldn’t see it directly, the ‘sky’ lit up above you from the strobe tens of metres away.
A quick visit to some statues at the deeper end of the site revealed the peaceful openness of a sandy sea floor, disappearing into the darkness. Thankfully, the statues didn’t seem bothered by our late night visit. When the dive started, I thought I’d be taskloaded with all the new night-related procedures and signals, but it was quite a calming experience. Who needs a spa when you can go on a night dive?
Thursday: RIB diving and BBQ
Thursday was finally RIB day, with the entire group together. We had two sites close to each other, the Liberty and the Nemesis, two purposely-sunk wrecks off the coast of Paralimni. The maximum depth was 27m, but the shallowest part of the Nemesis was at around16m, so was accessible for Ocean Divers (including myself at this stage). We’d be diving in waves: first on the Liberty, return to the marina to swap divers and kit, and on to the Nemesis.
At about 10am, we headed off to the Nemesis. This was an exciting dive for me, having never dived out of a RIB before. The visibility was good: on the descent you could clearly see the wreck and the end of the shot line. The wreck was in a relatively good state, having been sunk in 2013. There was plenty of sea life, including a good amount of lionfish and quite colourful schools of fish. A current was running from bow to stern, so you could swim up to the bow exploring the portside, and then let yourself gently drift down the starboard side, peeking into the different bits of machinery above and below deck. Some other buddy pairs took advantage of the quite prominent bow of the ship and recreated the classic Titanic scene. Some time later, we headed up the shot line.
Back at the marina, Debbie confirmed that I was a newly minted Sports Diver! And with that great news, we headed off for a second Nemesis dive, joined by some of the Liberty group from earlier that day. The second dive was similar, with a bit more exploring of the deck and swimming through the bridge. By the end, the current had picked up and most of us found ourselves holding onto the shot line during our safety stop like flags flapping in the wind. Quite fun.
To close the day, we had our long awaited BBQ in one of the villas. Good food, great company, a fire and cold drinks. What else could you ask for? It was great to hang out with everyone, hear all the fun stories, and just mark the moment before our official last day of diving.
Trip stats and final round-up
- Newly qualified trainees: 5 Sports Divers, 2 Ocean Divers
- Divers: 18
- Days of diving: 6
- Dive sites: 7
- Bars of chocolate eaten: too many!
To say the trip was a complete success would be an understatement! Given the reduced number of instructors at the beginning of the trip, the constant plan reshuffling due to weather, Zenobia plans changing and just the sheer amount of time that open water training took, it was a great logistical accomplishment. Of course, this would not have been possible without the relentless work of Debbie, Dan and Lucie constantly making the impossible happen. And let’s not forget all the instructors who gave their time, experience and love of the sport to all the trainees. Thank you :)
Special Mention #1: Stefano’s Pasta Cookout
On Tuesday evening, after three days of diving, energy levels were starting to drop. That, however, made the plans for the night even better. Chef Stefano volunteered to hold a pasta cookout for the 18 of us at our villa, so that we could all enjoy good food and see everyone’s faces in one place for the first time in the trip (a surprisingly hard task!).
Drinks flowed, the pasta was quickly devoured and everyone shared stories about their diving so far. Team Zenobia got to show off their fantastic footage from the day and we all got to have a great evening in great company.
The highlight of the dinner, though: Stefano demonstrating his phone gimbal that could automatically rotate at the press of a button and had us hooting like apes.
Special Mention #2: Fizzing off and exploring Cyprus
A handful of us decided to stay an extra night to explore the island, so Saturday morning we headed out to Nicosia. The drive was quite beautiful, taking you first along the coast towards Larnaca, and then north through the hills and valleys.
We had a pleasant morning stroll around the historic areas of Nicosia. Ornate orthodox churches, flowery gardens surrounding quaint houses, and cobblestone streets created a gorgeous setting to explore.
However, this was sometimes juxtaposed with barbed wire, fences and UN soldiers guarding the buffer zone. The border would sometimes cut through a narrow street, and we would find ourselves metres away from the abandoned part of the city where houses still showed shrapnel damage. The experience was quite sombre for all of us.
In the afternoon we headed to Pano Lefkara, a village on the hills south of Nicosia. We learnt that the village was well-known for lefkaritika, its handmade lace, which is listed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. After enjoying the views, we found a busy local tavern for lunch, where the owner gave us great recommendations on dishes to try and shared stories from decades of owning the tavern. He even treated us to a shot of Zivania, a local spirit similar to grappa and toasted with us at the end of our meal.
To close out the evening, we stopped by a nearby olive farm where we walked some short trails overlooking the valley and were received with a free oil tasting and sampling table by the owners. Needless to say, the products spoke for themselves and we left with bags of delicious items to bring home.
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