Out of Seahouses or Beadnell the Farnes are famous for bird life and seals. One or two wrecks but seal are the thing in 10 – 25 metres. RIB, large charter RIB or hardboat. Hostel accommodation. Protected from prevailing Southwesterly winds. Some local shore diving but quite hard work.
A quarry with a range of depths, 18m max. Helicopters, small planes and boats. Large trout and sturgeon are a popular feature, also a model horse from a fairground that can be “ridden” with good buoyancy control!
NOTE: This is a 4 Hour journey at least, so it is worth making a weekend of it. There is plenty of accommodation available in Morecambe at reasonable prices.
A favourite amongst UK divers for hardboat or RIB. Huge sheltered harbour with some low viz dives inside and wreckage on the outside of the breakwater walls. Diveable in most states of weather. Sandy seabed and a reef outside the harbour in 11 – 15 metres. Many good deeper wrecks mainly from hardboats and some famous submarines west of Portland Bill.
I have been a BSAC member for some 40 years and I have had a house in Northern Cyprus for the last 17 years. I had always promised the club a Cyprus dive extravaganza.
The dive trip involved 6 months of planning and in May 2023 we were joined in Cyprus by 12 members of DSAC for a 7 day ‘holiday’. The experience level of the group ranged from Ocean Divers to Advanced. We had 3 villas, 5 hire cars, and the fantastic assistance of DP Dive Centre. The centre is based at Oris Beach, to the west of Kyrenia in the area that Turkey calls the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).
The trip was planned to allow the club to enjoy the best diving the whole of Cyprus can offer and for the range of qualification levels.
With fantastic organisation by Pete and Mehmet the owners of DP Diving, we dived all around the island. It must be said that Northern Cyprus has some of the best diving in the Mediterranean yet gets very little promotion in any UK publications.
The itinerary was as follows:
Day 1 – From DP Divers, Oris Beach – shake down dives. It was early in the season, and we were glad that we had brought some 5mm semi-drys or for others, had layered up with long-johns and shorties over the top.
Dive 1 – RIB dive – Zefros reef – range of depths from 12m – 26m depending on qualifications – lovely reef with lots of varied life.
Dive 2 – RIB dive – ‘Wall’ dive site – max 31 m – dramatic drop off – pick your depth with lots of life. We were able to use this 2nd dive to allow the potential Sports Divers do some ‘Dive Leading’. All good – and some sign-offs followed
Day 2 – Larnaca This required a drive to the ‘border’ and to park the hire cars here as hire cars cannot be taken across into Southern Cyprus. Then a mini bus down to Larnaca with all our kit going in a separate truck.
Dives 3, 4 and 5 – 3 dives on the Zenobia from the Zenobia Queen, including one night dive. We were the only group on the Zenobia Queen for the night dive as this is not a standard offering but DP Divers had negotiated this with the operator of the ‘Queen.
Overnight – hotel in Larnaca
Day 3 – Larnaca Bay – from Zenobia Queen
Dive 6 – Elpida wreck dive – 16 – 32m – large cargo ship sunk as a dive site. She has been well cleared out and is a great alternative dive to the Zenobia. It is lucky that she doesn’t actually get dived too often as most tourist divers want to dive the Zen. So, we had an excellent dive with some more experienced divers doing some penetration and others just exploring the larger outside spaces.
Dive 7 – We then returned to the Zenobia – with extended penetration expertly led by Pete of DP divers and the experience level this time covered right across the range – most having gained a level of competence and experience on the Elpida to feel comfortable doing this as a group.
Day 4 – To Karpaz – the eastern tip of Cyprus – very remote – famous for its wild donkeys!
Dive 8 – The first dive was a shore-dive – uncovering lots of pottery in what is understood to have been a Venetian harbour, when Venice were masters of the Mediterranean seas.
Dive 9 – The 2nd dive was from the RIB; which Pete and Mehmet had towed all the way there. To get it there in time to meet up with all of us, they had started at 4am that morning. ‘The wreck’ dive was from 6 to16m – this is a fairly large ship wreck of a modern vessel – 40m viz, and much of the ship is still intact, with swim throughs etc. The name and nationality of this ship is a mystery and is still to be identified.
Day 5 – Oris beach – DP divers
Dive 10 – RIB – SG70 wreck – a coast guard ship sunk as a dive site – 28-36m – lots of swim-throughs and a lot of life
Dive 11 – RIB – Paradise reef – Lionfish hunting – the Eastern Mediterranean is blighted by Lionfish – as such our last dive involved 6 of our club going Lionfish hunting – with 3 armed with spears, and me driving an underwater scooter (Driver Propulsion Vehicle – DPV) – ‘spotting’ the lionfish. We caught 30 in a 30 minute dive – that gives some idea of the scale of the problem out here.
Luckily, that evening we were going to a restaurant run by a friend of ours – they filleted and cooked the lionfish for us as a starter – delicious.
This Cyprus dive trip was unique and to complete such a range of diving around the island in 5 days was both fun and educational. Very experienced divers on the trip, who have dived extensively in the UK and abroad said it was the best trip they had ever been on.
Many thanks to all who came along and also to Pete and Mehmet, of DP Divers. More photographs of our trip to Cyprus can be found in the photo galleries.
Ian Williams
The latest trip to the Farne islands resulted in two days blown out.
We had to find something to do. On the second day, as luck would have it there was a Beer and Food Festival in Berwick. A few foaming ales and someone suggested it would be a good idea (??) to have our faces painted.
Two of us agreed to do it for charity. We raised £120 for the RNLI and on the way back to Seahouses we raised a few eyebrows from oncoming drivers as Eyore was also one of the Designated Drivers!
