Holidays have often got to be for more than the Diving enthusiast and so I have tried diving in a few places not normally on the Sub aqua route. My first foray as a lone diver, that is diving with an ad-hoc buddy, was in north-west Italy. My second was off the coast of Turkey. My latest trip, and so far the best, has been in Istria, Croatia. The hotel 'Sol Club Istra' had diving listed as one of its activities but no details. Searching on the Internet for 'Diving+Croatia' eventually brought me to 'Aqualung Diving' based in Valalta at the mouth of the Fiord used in the filming of The Vikings. The Aqualung web site gave some details and drawings of wrack dives (wrack being Croatian English for wreck) and a chart showing wreck sites of the coast near Rovinj but I didn't know if these were the dives on offer at the hotel. The hotel was idyllic. Sited on a pair of small islands linked by a low breakwater, surrounded by the clear, emerald waters of the Adriatic about a quarter of an hour ferry ride (Africa Queen type) from Rovinj. Packing for me was simple. One new 5.5mm wet suit, diving kit without bottles and weights, a tee-shirt and swimming trunks. This latter item being optional on the smaller island since it was, as we found out, FKK. On our first day I made contact with Marco and his sister Lara who between them led the dives and ran the centre. The whole operation was very simple and stress free and my first dive was arranged for the next morning. The next morning I met Wilhelm, a German navy officer who was to be my buddy for the dive and we loaded all the kit onto a fast planing launch that sped us out to The Baron Gautch. This ship, sunk in 1914, was sitting upright on the sea bed at 28 to 40 metres as if it was still making 10 knots. Covered in encrustations and teeming with sea life the dive was over too soon. My next three dives were along the rocky coasts and through the caverns of small local islands and reefs. This diving was done from a small 14 foot boat. It was full of interest and sea life. My buddy for these dives was Ralph, a butcher from Liepzig, also on holiday with his family. By this time my ears were equalising very easily and so my final dive went like a dream. The dive was onto the Giuseppe Dezza. The max depth was 32.2 metres, the computed average being 22.9. My buddy on this dive was Eston, an Italian on holiday with his family from Bolzano. A northern Italian town I happened to know. On the descent the temperature changes were quite sudden and the bottom temperature felt cool at 16C. This was some kind of warship, either a sub. or MTB and it gave me a creepy feeling as we finned over the open hatches and around its long defunct guns. I didn't cram as much diving as possible into the holiday but enough to make if memorable for me. It was recreational and good fun and Marco was an excellent Dive Leader. Costs were not too bad and including the Croation diving permit came to about £75 total.
References:
Diving Center Pingvin www.cel.hr/pingvin