Diving in Crete Submitted on 10-Jun-2009 09:46:54 by Adrian Colegate. Updated on 10-Jun-2009 10:06:33
Report by Pete Hodkin
The wonderful Mediterranean
– the warmth of the sun, the beautiful blue of the sea and the spectacular marine
life – diving is great in Crete.
What started as a relaxing, sunbed
lounging around the pool holiday rapidly began to descend into a full on Dive fest.
It all happen so innocently.
‘Lets go to a nice 5 star hotel’ –
she said, ‘just the two of us. Spend some quality time together, relaxing round
the pool bar, sipping ice cold cocktails, reading, listening to some music and generally
relaxing.’
It all started on the first day. We
arrived at the very well appointed 5 star Iberostar Mirabello Beach Hotel just outside
of the town of Agios Nikolaos in the
lovely island of Crete.
We had a delightful breakfast out on the hotel terrace overlooking the small marine
that fronts the seashore of the hotels ‘private’ beach. The mill pond still sea
stretching out for miles in front of us, the rolling hills in the distant and the
cloudless sky… fantastic.
So back up to the room grab the beach
towels and head down to the beach…that’s when it began.
See what we were both totally unaware
of was the fact that the hotel housed a secret, beneath the large sun terrace lay
a chamber of unimaginable beauty (well in my eyes). For lying in this chamber was
the land of Pavlos,
with his two trusty dive instructors Tracey and Andy.
So there we are part way to the beach
when I spy the entrance to their wonderland……. 5mins later and I’m booked in for
my first dive!!! All thoughts of lounging around the pool have now gone straight
out the window. Will power! I’ve got none.
For the next few days I have the delight
of diving 4 different dive sites all in the safe and expert hands of Tracey as she
became my dive guide and buddy for the duration.
The dive centre is situated within
a very short boat ride of some 23 dive site! The furthest being only 20mins away.
All of the kit is supplied and in
first class quality – no leaky worn out wetsuits or bashed up regs – all of the
kit is top notch and looks new! The company also has a number of ribs of various
sizes dependant on the dive group. As there are just the two of us diving Tracey
selects one of the smaller ribs and we ventured out on the first dive to the site
called Kamini 1 – this is a short 10 min trip out of the marina to the far shoreline.
Pavlos has been diving these sites for a considerable number of years and had shown
Tracey where the best marine life could be found. We anchor and looked down to the
sea bed below some 16m, crystal clear and wonderfully lit by the morning sun. Tracey
gave me a full dive brief, pointed out all of the emergency kit etc, how we would
enter and exit the water, and a run through of the depths and time we would be diving
to, we then kitted up, did a buddy checked (and a full one at that, none of your
usual casual holiday buddy checks ). We then rolled into the warm water, a quick
weight check on the surface and we were ready to descend the anchor line. A slow
decent down the shot and before you realised we were at 20m, the visibility was
infinite.
The marine life along this reef is
quite abundant, wrase of all colours, bream and then the mother of all fish, the
grouper. Wow. Tracey had brought along some bread and before long we were surrounded
by all means of colour, size and shape of fish. Diving in 21 degrees seas with only
a 5mm wetsuit makes all of those days spent training and huddled around a warm coffee
flask in the early hours in Stoney Cove car park suddenly seem worthwhile. We explored
the reef gently rising to a safety stop at 6m and suddenly we are back on the rib
having spent 55mins totally transfixed by the marine life. More more more, I was
like a big kid.
We dived Manigo next which is defined
as ‘Wreck’ on their website, this is the location of a small yacht that has been
parked neatly on the sea bottom, with a maximum depth of 26m, As with all wreck
the marine life love them and we were not disappointed because inside the broken
hull was a good sized grouper, we continued to explore along the reef and Tracey
and I encountered the tail of a lovely sized Moray Eel. Once more some broken bread
and we were surrounded once more by all manner of fish. Another beautiful dive site.
Tracey tells me that this is also a good night dive as the area is full of octopus.
Its also acts as a fall back dive given its sheltered position so can be dived at
any state of the sea, within reason.
The next dive was at Kavos this was
home to a family of Groupers, one the size of a family dog!, truly amazing. This
is also the site of an old WWII bomber engine and if you look carefully you can
see discarded ordnance shells scattered around the sea bed – most definitely a case
of look but don’t touch.
Saving the best till last Tracey promised
that this would be a dive to remember and so my final dive was on Explosion I. It’s
claimed that the film The Guns of Navarone was based on this site. In WWII a large
gun emplacement sat atop of the ridge and at some stage it was destroyed and the
guns and the machinery was left to roll down into the depths of the sea which lay
below. This has become a marine playgound, all manner of fish have made this their
home, large grouper are in abundance and you struggle to know where to look next.
The return dive along the shear wall
is quite spectacular and before long time is up and we are once more back on the
rib. The trip back to the marina was to be my last aboard the rib and could have
been with a touch of sadness as I was to be returning home the next day, but as
if spirited up by the Greek gods we are in for one last treat. Part way home across
the bay we spy a turtle, swimming on the surface making its way slowly across in
front of us.
What better end could you have to
a dive, we’re both grinning from ear to ear and whist this was the last dive together
it was certainly the most memorable.
The dive centre, and the team there
are a credit to diving. Nothing is left to chance and safety is their first priority.
Not only are they very professional
they are also very very nice company to spend time with. All of the kit and the
equipment is very well looked after, thoroughly washed in fresh water and hung to
dry in the centre, The kit is rotated and all serviced by Andy who is a qualified
technician. The centre sports not one but two compressors and does blend Nitrox.
 For those new to diving the back end
of the centre is set up as a class room with chairs and tables, so full training
on site is available. Everyday they have a Discover Scuba slot in the hotel pool
so if family and friends want to enjoy some of your experiences training can easily
be provided.
So if you and the wife or family are
looking for a quite relaxing pool side holiday, you could do no better than to visit
Crete and the wonderful hotel and village complex of the Iberostar Mirabello at
Agios Nikolos. Take your mask,coz you never know you, like I, you may stumble upon
the wonderful jewel in the crown that is the Crete Underwater Centre.
Once again a big thank you to Pavlos
and Andy. And a special thank you goes to Tracey for being my buddy.
http://www.creteunderwatercenter.com/home
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