In September 2008 Eve and I enjoyed a Mediterranean cruise aboard MY Emerald Princess. The cruise ship’s itinerary included seven hours at Kusadasi. Should I visit the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, the best preserved classical city of the Eastern Mediterranean. Or go diving? It was a no-brainer!
A few years earlier, Kusadasi would no doubt have been no different from any other sleepy Turkish fishing village. But times had changed. It now boasted a huge local bazaar with merchants offering wares to rival the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and a tourist centre that provided access to Ephesus and the entire Ionian coast. The sun glinted off the town’s whitewashed stone houses which rose in tiers before us as MY Emerald Princess docked at Kusadasi Jetty.There to meet me was Koray Canbaz, owner of the Sea Garden Diving Centre, who then kindly drove me the short distance to his dive centre on Snake Island Beach in the Yilanciburnu area of Kusadasi. Koray introduced me to my dive guide for the day, Emin Gokcen who offered told to show me a hole in the local reef which was home to both a Conger Eel and a Moray Eel.
We quickly kitted up for the first dive, my
dive 1565, strode down the Snake Island Beach jetty and began exploring the shallows with Emin collecting any
discarded rubbish that we came across. I had selected my 10-17mm Tokina lens
for this dive and Emin happily posed for me demonstrating a wide variety of
diving skills including removing his mask and regulator. He then left a small
amount of bait in front of a small hole in the reef and both a Moray Eel and
Conger Eel popped out to eat it. As
we returned towards our entry point, Emin spotted a small octopus which in its
panic ejected ink. After an
appropriate surface interval Emin and I returned to the dive site but this time
I was armed with my 60mm lens for semi-macro shots. I lost count of the
Scorpionfish that we saw, they were skittish but with so many, I was able to
photograph several. We returned to the Conger/Moray Eel hole but this time the
Conger Eel was reluctant to come out.
A meaningless statistic! Eleven minutes
into the second dive I accumulated exactly 1,500 hours underwater - just call
me Nerdy Nobbs!
I enjoyed both dives very much and greatly
appreciated the trouble Koray and Emin had both taken to ensure that I had a
good time.