Currently in Cyprus during the "Eid Al Fitr" holiday and enjoying a week's holiday here in the cooler climes of Cyprus.
Larnaca is only a 4 hour flight from Dubai so we decided to head here instead of SE Asia as the UAE temps hit 40C over the past week.
My plan was to stay at Laranca and dive for at least two days on the Zenobia as we had other plans outside of diving. I chose to dive with Alpha Divers as they appeared to have a decent reputation online and some personal feedback from a couple of other people sealed the deal.
First of all the wreck;
MS Zenobia was a Swedish built Challenger-class RO-RO ferry launched in 1979 that capsized and sank in the Mediterranean sea, close to Larnaca, Cyprus, in June 1980 on her maiden voyage.
It now sits in 42m off the port of Larnaca and provides a great dive site with incredible visibility. During my visit it was around 20m horizontally. All sorts of diving can be undertaken here including penetration of the wreck
More can be read here
Alpha Divers are based just on the outskirts of Larnaca and in fact are around 8 Km from where I am currently staying (Radisson Blu). They do pass the hotel on the way to the marina, but I opted to go to the dive centre first to sort out my gear, which is loaded into the back of a pick up truck or in a trailer and then taken to the marina where everyone pitches in to unload and load the boat.
Chris, who runs Alpha Divers, has a good team of guys working with him right now, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. It should be said that some other dive ops do share boats for the dive on Zenobia, and each boat has its own mooring spot.
Divers are buddied according to their experience level. By chance another diver from Dubai was doing a tech course, let's call him Paul. So on Day 1 I was buddied with Paul and an instructor Ludo and more of less hung out with them to take photos etc., as we did the bow area first then the stern on the second dive.
On Day 2, Paul was buddied with another instructor Olay, and for the first dive I was buddied with another guy Ian, and we accompanied them to the bottom where the trucks are all laying on top of each other at 40m then did our own thing back to the surface.
During the second dive we did a penetration dive which took us to a (stale) air pocket, and advised not to breath the air in it. Some empty wine bottles were in there!
Some of the spaces were a bit tight, but we all made it through.
Some of the photos can be viewed here
Larnaca is only a 4 hour flight from Dubai so we decided to head here instead of SE Asia as the UAE temps hit 40C over the past week.
My plan was to stay at Laranca and dive for at least two days on the Zenobia as we had other plans outside of diving. I chose to dive with Alpha Divers as they appeared to have a decent reputation online and some personal feedback from a couple of other people sealed the deal.
First of all the wreck;
MS Zenobia was a Swedish built Challenger-class RO-RO ferry launched in 1979 that capsized and sank in the Mediterranean sea, close to Larnaca, Cyprus, in June 1980 on her maiden voyage.
It now sits in 42m off the port of Larnaca and provides a great dive site with incredible visibility. During my visit it was around 20m horizontally. All sorts of diving can be undertaken here including penetration of the wreck
More can be read here
Alpha Divers are based just on the outskirts of Larnaca and in fact are around 8 Km from where I am currently staying (Radisson Blu). They do pass the hotel on the way to the marina, but I opted to go to the dive centre first to sort out my gear, which is loaded into the back of a pick up truck or in a trailer and then taken to the marina where everyone pitches in to unload and load the boat.
Chris, who runs Alpha Divers, has a good team of guys working with him right now, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. It should be said that some other dive ops do share boats for the dive on Zenobia, and each boat has its own mooring spot.
Divers are buddied according to their experience level. By chance another diver from Dubai was doing a tech course, let's call him Paul. So on Day 1 I was buddied with Paul and an instructor Ludo and more of less hung out with them to take photos etc., as we did the bow area first then the stern on the second dive.
On Day 2, Paul was buddied with another instructor Olay, and for the first dive I was buddied with another guy Ian, and we accompanied them to the bottom where the trucks are all laying on top of each other at 40m then did our own thing back to the surface.
During the second dive we did a penetration dive which took us to a (stale) air pocket, and advised not to breath the air in it. Some empty wine bottles were in there!
Some of the spaces were a bit tight, but we all made it through.
Some of the photos can be viewed here