Cyprus – Zen diving
When in a warm country and by the sea it would be rude not to have a dive so, not wishing to upset the locals, I took the plunge.
Staying in Paphos I gave CyDive a shout and soon lined up a couple of shallow dives. They do a lot of shore diving and have a selection of ‘standard’ sites as they have easy access to several different sitesI also added a trip to the Zenobia.
Sadly the Zenobia trip was cancelled due to strong winds and 3/4 meter swells so I was relegated to a walk into Paphos along the sea front. Instead of diving I visited Nea Pafos a small promontory situated on next to Paphos town.
It’s an amazing place with some incredible mosaics, it even had fish!
Two days later the sea had calmed and visibility had improved so we headed up the coast to Church Bay for a couple of dives. The first dive was one of the regular sites, The Ampitheatre, this is a dive that works through various small cave/tunnels towards a great circular basin where the sea gushes over the top like a washing machine. The temperature was about 17o C degrees but felt colder due to the wind.
The second dive was about 100 yards away and involved scrambling down a rocky path and leaping into the sea from a few feet high. Once again good topography and with the highlight being an octopus and a few small shoals of fish.
The diving was enjoyable enough and had plenty to see in terms of topography and interest. The diving is uncomplicated and interesting, in terms of the landscape, but not too challenging (except for some of the entrance/exit points). Unfortunately it has the problem that a lot of Mediterranean islands have, very little fish life. There are a few small fish hiding away and a few larger fish in scattered small shoals but nothing major. I enjoyed the dives but I would really like to see much more life.
These dive sites are good but need to be protected, Cyprus has true potential as a dive area but needs to somehow start developing marine conservation areas to live up to its full potential. The sites would not bring me back for a dive trip without having the Zenobia involved. For new divers, it’s worth the effort to get in and practice skills.
