CYPRUS 2000

          I have a new toy!! An Epoque ET – 100 Plus underwater camera. It is also cold over here and I want another holiday (the boss keeps wanting me to work for some reason). After going to the London Dive Show and talking to people there I decided to go to Cyprus and stay in Paphos. The other option was Larnaca but there seemed less to do outside of diving. The flight out was on a Wednesday with JMC and took approximately 4 hours. I stayed in a 3* hotel, the Mayfair, which seemed more like a 4* to me, being used to basic rooms for divers! My package was half board and they did not skimp on the food; 3 or 4 course breakfast and 4 course evening meal.

          After arriving in the evening, unpacking and feeding I went for a walk to the harbour. I was pleasantly surprised in that the walk down to the harbour was only 20 minutes whereas I had thought it was going to be longer. Still, it was a long way with heavy dive gear. Found the harbour, now find the dive shop. I had a map showing where to look but in the dark it took a bit of finding. Eventually I found Cydive and noted the quickest route for tomorrow.

          Amazing, I actually got up in time for breakfast. Difficulty getting out of the dining room since I was stuffed. The tour rep was giving introductory talks in the morning so listened and booked the jeep trips to the Troodos mountains and the Akamas Peninsular. Now down to Cydive and terrorise dive staff!

          Photos, the managing director, recognised me from the Dive Show, impressed. I explained the problems I had, due to the bike accident, with diving and was told “no problem”. Carl Yates, the senior instructor, “suggested” a warm up dive to see what I was like the next morning and they would pick me up. Ouch, early start and I’m on holiday.

Cydive In The Distance

          I was spoiled!! Malcolm collected me from my hotel in a Land Rover so I did not have to carry my gear the 20-minute (it would have been longer carrying gear) walk to Cydive. We sorted out the equipment I would require being the normal tank and weights but I had only brought my 7mm jacket so they let me borrow a 5mm long john, as recommended by Malcolm!! Then the bus trip to a small cove on the northern side of the Akamas peninsular about halfway between the Baths Of Aphrodite and Lachi.

          This dive was a shallow dive being a maximum of 6.5m. Because of this buoyancy control was a tad hectic due to continually going over rocky outcrops and gullies. My dive buddy was Carl and we went for a little bimble on our own. I reckon he wanted to make sure I was ok underwater before he let me loose on his other instructors and dive masters!!! It was a nice warm up dive and allowed me to get used to the new BCD I had just bought. There was very little, if any, marine life apart from seaweed and sea grass and we spent 44 minutes underwater.

          I had now organised my diving, explored Paphos slightly and sorted out the tours I was going to do. The first tour was round the Troodos Mountains. This was a jeep tour, which was half off-road. The Land Rover picked me up from my hotel, went to a café just outside Paphos where we prepared for the trip ahead. Our first stop was just before going off-road looking over a valley in the Troodos foothills.

Our First Stop

          Here the expedition leader introduced the drivers and gave us an outline of the day ahead. We were to go off-road until dinner at a restaurant in one of the mountain villages before visiting Mount Olympus and Kykkou monastery. The mountains were beautiful being rugged and spectacular; at the top of Mount Olympus there was even snow left in April! Inside the monastery there was a chapel, which had been covered in gold, mostly, and silver leaf by rich benefactors. The trip ended back at Paphos going via Aphrodite’s Birth Place.

One Of The Monastery Courtyards

The trips pick up from Larnaca and Limassol with Paphos the last pick-up point and the first drop-off point. To get to the other two towns is about 2 hours drive, so Paphos was the better place to stay in that respect.

          Back to diving and my next dive was at Bubbles. This dive site is a series of swim throughs, although not being that experienced, or ticketed for restricted access, I did not attempt a swim through. The dive site is named due to the bubbles of air that escape through the rock from divers’ breathing in the swim throughs. My buddy for this dive and the next was Lowri. The water temperature was 19° C with about 11m visibility. During the dive we saw Parrot fish, a Turkish wrasse, Rainbow wrasse, 2 sorts of spiky Sea Urchin, Fire worms and a red starfish. I seemed to ascend a bit quickly for my liking and the “Slow” warning showed on the computer so I needed to check the reason but, all in all, it was a good dive. There appeared to be a lack of marine life, which was probably due to over fishing in the shallower water.

          After an evening with the dive instructors and dive masters in the local pub and a wander round Paphos in the morning I was ready to go diving again. This time the dive was Amphorae Caves, which are not really caves but is where the sea bed has moved into an overhanging position. The tops of this area have Roman and Greek amphorae embedded in them. I was diving with Lowri again and she showed her dedication to teaching diving by taking her glove puppet down with her for a dive lesson!!! I was diving with 10kg of weight, which is the weighting I use for a 2 piece 7mm suit in England with a steel tank. It turned out that I needed an extra 2kg as at the end of the dive I could

Me At Bubbles

Lowri

not stop myself ascending without swimming or holding onto the shot line, oops! This was the reason my computer showed the “Slow” warning on the last dive. 12kg weight from now on!

          There were wreck dives from Paphos including the Vera K, Achillea and the Achillea (not)! The Achillea (not) being a dive where Captain Stan missed the Achillea and we dived on another wreck!!

Debbie Bolender On The Achillea

The other jeep tour I did was round the Akamas peninsular. This was almost all off-road and we got to see some great scenery. We were shown the beach where the turtles come to nest. Each year people watch the turtles very carefully and when the eggs hatch they catch the young turtles. The live turtles are then taken to a holding pen in Paphos harbour where they are grown on. When they reach a suitable size they are taken back to the beach for release. Towards the end of the trip we visited Aphrodite’s Bath and a reptile zoo, mostly snakes.

During the times I was not diving I walked round some of the sights of Paphos. There is a lot to see within walking distance including Roman mosaics, an amphitheatre and the Lusignans fort on the harbour breakwater amongst others. I did not dive the Zenobia, which is possible from Cydive as a day trip, so that is a good reason to visit Cyprus again and maybe see John Kent. Overall it was a very good trip and worth going back again, especially to dive some of the deeper dives. The deeper dives are morning dives and I have to steel myself to overcome the problem of getting up early on holiday!! Next time should be just as interesting and good fun. Maybe at some stage I will meet the people I met here again. I have E-Mail addresses for some, including Lowrie, Debbie and Mica. It is possible that Wobbly Bird (a New Zealander who wobbles when he is drunk), Malcolm and Robert may meet up with me again. We had some good fun and it was well worth going to Paphos; so maybe in a couple of years’ time.

Please Sir, Could I Have My Weight Belt?