Larnaca

Friday 28 September 2018

I’ve been trying to make this trip happen for a while. But flights have always escalated in price so quickly. So as soon as I saw a reasonable price, i had to go (even though I’m also away next weekend…!).

Off diving!

It’s a long-ish flight to Cyprus. Perhaps a bit far just for a weekend. Nearly 5 hours.

I landed in Larnaca at 9pm. And within a few minutes was already in the city – it’s about 10minutes from the airport!

Saturday 29 September 2018

Diving time.

The Zenobia wreck dive gets good reviews. It’s on all the “top dive sights of the world” lists. I’m not a massive fan of wrecks. I find them rather scary. And would much prefer a reef. But that’s why I’m here. Im giving it a go.

I was picked up at 7.30am (5.30am body time!). Far too early after a night of no sleep. The city was so loud at night.

The dive site isn’t far away from land. And lots of boats were gathering there for the morning.

The Zenobia is a roll-on-roll-off ferry (so it has cars, trucks and cargo on it). It was launched in 1980 and capsized on the maiden voyage.

The ship sits in 42m of water, with the shallowest part around 16m. And is 178 m long. So pretty big.

For the first dive we just went around one end, around the edge. Around the back of the propellor, past some lifeboats and some trucks.

One of the trucks was containing frozen animals when the ship sunk. This truck is on its side and animal bones are scattered along the bottom of it.

There weren’t any fish around. Just a few lion fish.

During the hour between dives, back on the boat, it was getting busy in the water. Day boats were bringing people to snorkel here! Not sure why as you would only be able to see a shadow beneath you.

Second dive, we went inside. I’m not a fan of going inside things. Claustrophobia. But I did part of it. Inside a car deck. Completely pitch black (we had torches). And lots of trucks inside.

By 12pm we were done for the day! From the harbour I could walk back to my hotel (struggling carrying so much dive kit).

Larnaca is the third largest city in Cyprus. And it isn’t very large.

After some lunch at the only vegan cafe – falafel in a flatbread with salad – I went for a walk around the city.

The main city is a few small maze-like streets.

At the south end of the city is the Larnaca castle. This Byzantine fort was constructed to defend the southern coast around the 12th century. It was later used as a prison during British rule from 1900s up to 1948. It was EUR2.50 to go inside. And there was only 1 other person there.

The only other ‘sight’ of the city is the Greek Orthodox Church – Church of Saint Lazarus. This sits in a small square.