Friday 30th April and Saturday 1st May found me in Cyprus, in the company of Octopus Diving in Larnaka. Destination the Zenobia, a huge wreck that sits 1.5km outside of the harbour in about 42m of clear, warm Mediterranean water. Plenty of web pages exist giving the history of the wreck, so I will keep this brief. It went down in 1980, just one year after it was built. Romour has it that after considerable mucking about trying to correct a serious list it became more economical to let her sink, so sink she did. She now sits on her port side, is almost completely intact and has been subject to no salvage attempts. This means that she still has 104 articulated lorries in and around her. She is stunning, at 172m long. Bouyed and easy to dive, you hit her (some divers quite literally) when you get to 17m-ish. A swim around her makes a great dive, and for the more adventurous - and the stupid, some divers have not come back - there are plenty of opportunities for penetration. Lots of these are diver friendly. The wreck has not been cleaned up to any great extent, but Ian from Octopus has, over the past 17 years of diving her, opened doors and windows and can guide or advise on just about any part of the wreck you want to go around, under, over or in.

Enough of that, to the dives. On Friday I played the buddy lottery and did not do too badly, finding myself with Rene, a huge Netherlander. OUr first dive was a slow bimble along the outside of the wreck, max depth about 31m and bottom time of about 50min total. While the wreck itself is hugely impressive, and the sight of so many lotties is also spectacular, I think that the presence of a submarine little more than 20yds from us was also a highlight. We had seen the pleasure sub (it takes tourists to se the Zenobia without getting wet) on the surface and has been warned to keep an eye out for it. It still came as a shock to see it cruise along side the wreck, and as even more of shock to see it turn, it's nose slowly approaching us. For quite a large craft it made very little noise. It turned and went back where it came from as did we.

Dive two was led by Graham, a British ex-pat instructor. Together with Rene and a guy finishing off his advanced course we ventured into the upper lorry deck. The entry point is a window at the bow and it is quite a logn swim inside the wreck. Initially it seems pitch black, due in some measure to our torches, but as you get used to the dark you can see the exit in the distince as a blue glowing cave exit. You could quite easily do the swim without a torch but if you did you would miss out on the best part of this dive. The upper lorry deck is a massive void. It has to be because it is full of lorries which are now stacked on top of one another beneath you. Loads of them. For the entire length of the penetration and beyond, out onto the open deck area at which point they spill on to the seabed. Huge lorries. Everywhere. Wow.

The rest of the dive is not an anticlimax. I found a few small nudibranchs and there are a lot of small wrasse around the wreck, probably because fishing is banned near it. The top looks like a reef, covered in green algae. If you were dropped blindfold onto the upper (starboard) side blindfold you would think you were on a dull reef. There is a lot of life on the Zenobia, which surprised me - I thought the Med was dead. The swim along the top handrail back to the bow end and the upline gives you plenty to look at and into, and as the water is so clear - vis approaching 30m - you get to have a good look at her when on your deco (safety) stops. Very nice, and more to come the next day.