The first stop we made was for a cave dive. It was just thetwo of us, so Anton dropped his gear into the water afterfilling his BCD vest with air, and helped me into my twowetsuits, one with a hood, and then into my BCD. I droppedinto the water and then he followed. I was glad that he hadsuggested the second wetsuit, since the water was clear butextremely cold, and got colder as we went deeper.
As we went around the walls near the island, we sawcountless beds of coral, some with orange colored algae, butmost with a dark green. There were sea urchins everywhere.Most of them had a half shell stuck in their thorns, despitethe fact that there is no way their spines could pierce aclam shell. I think this is the same phenomenon as teenageboys who wear "Elevate and decide in the air" basketballt-shirts. Sort of a ridiculous badge of honor. Their wereeven albino sea urchins down there, or perhaps they weredead and had lost all their purple.
After trolling around the edge of the island, we came acrossa black hole in the wall. I had only about a fourth of atank left, but Anton motioned that this was OK, and weproceeded into it. On the surface he had said that it wentback about 200 meters. It seems now like this was muchexaggerated, maybe my excitement caught up with me. Antonheld an underwater flashlight, and I followed the light morethan I followed him. The "cave" was in reality more of acrack in the wall, and I slithered through with my tankbumping against the walls on the side and above me, andtried to keep up with Anton. As we came around the edge ofthe cave his light disappeared several times which wasunconfortable. Finally we arrived at a open area and I couldsee the surface of the water as Anton pointed the flashlightupward. Ascending slowly, we broke the surface. Everythingwas black inside the cave without Anton's flashlight. Whenhe shined it on the roof, a few feet above us, we could seetiny stalagtites, brownish and gooey. Anton said they lookedlike shark's teeth, and I thought this was a prettyinappropriate observation at that time. We then went backinto the water and he pointed to the entrance, and we couldsee the light blue crack from the opposite side.
As it turned out we descended to about 38 meters. I didn'thave a depth gauge on my regulator, so I had no idea. Thewater was so clear and bright that I had thought we hadn'tdropped beneath 15 meters or so. We were under for around 45minutes, which was a pretty long time for the depth we wereat, although this wasn't our total bottom time.
After we ascended and rested a bit, Anton said that we wouldthen visit a bomb dropped during WWII by the Germans, andthen proceed to a wreck and then see another cave. In factwe saw three German bombs at the bottom. All of them werecompletely corroded and you could see that they were emptyinside. Borin the cab driver had told me that some peoplehere in Dubrovnik would take mines found around the area andstuff them into fish which would then explode in the waterlater. Didn't look like there was much in the way of liveammunition down there, due in part to the heavy salt water.But one thing is for sure, war leaves even more than justdeath and hatred.
After we looped around the first German bomb, we descendedto see the sunken ship. The hull had almost completelysettled into the ocean floor so you could only see the topof it, but many other pieces of the boat remained scatteredabout. Anton said it was a tourist boat which hadunfortunately encountered engine problems, and the Serbs hadshot it down with machine guns. Only a few people had diedapparently. It was strange to see such geometric shapes inthe water after seeing the smooth rockiness of the coral inthe earlier dive. Another bomb sat on the floor next to thewreck. Lots of fish gathered about it as well; wrecksusually provide shelter similar to natural reefs for themarine life, and this one was no different. In a few yearsthe sea will probably have beaten it to a pulp and the shipwill return to the dust. As we went in the direction of thecave, Anton seemed almost clairvoyant as he found severallittle octopus, and a sea eel which had a head the size of aa coke bottle and probably several feet in length. Maybeeven the sea animals are interested in improving tourism inCroatia? After he found his friends, I looked and looked,but nothing ever looked different than grey sand until Antonpointed his light at something and it jetted off in a cloudof black ink.
Finally, we reach the other cave. As a now experienced cavediver, I had less anxiety in entering this one. This againwas somewhat like a crack in the wall. This cave, however,opened into the air within some rocky walls going up. "Thisis like a little lake," mentioned Anton. We then descendedback into the water, and followed the crack down. After wereached the boat, Anton informed me that we had reached 28meters at the lowest depth. Getting back into the boat, thefillings in my teeth stung a little bit from the pressureover the two dives.
These two dives, stretching over a few hours, cost me around$80, two dives ($58), including equipment rental ($20), theCroatian diving license good for one year (about 100 Kuna or$12), and the free boat ride out. Well worth it. Anton canbe reached at 435-737, via email at diver@vdu.hr [Click to view link]
Posted by Chris Dawson |
