Getting the rust off on my scuba diving skills…
I had a week long business trip to Istanbul, Turkey in August and while I was there, I extended the trip for a personal vacation. My wife and I had discussed the possibility of leaving our daughter, Hande Selin, with our parents in Kuşadası, Aydın and then to go on a short trip to a resort elsewhere for couple of days, just two of us, to enjoy some children-free time. We immediately executed on that plan by joining our friends Işılay and Levent who were vacationing at the small town of Kaş.
Kaş is a lovely seaside town in the province of Antalya at the southwestern part of the Anatolian peninsula. It is also the closest town to the Greek Island of Meis (Also known as Kastellorizo or Megisti in Greek). While the number of ugly concrete buildings in the town center are definitely on the rise, it is still protected from the tourism vandalism which transformed many of the coastal towns in Turkey to ugly mini cities in the last two decades. It preserves the ambience which makes you feel that the time is moving slower there. It is a laid back, relaxed, relatively cheap and quiet destination not crowded by the party people who will migrate from one bar to another.
I had done my first scuba discovery dive in Kaş with Nautilus Diving Center in 2002. Nautilus was one of the first to run an around-the-year dive operation in Kaş back then. Owner Süleyman Biber and his team are exceptionally friendly people and they know the local waters very well. So, on our second day of arrival, we got on the diving boat and set sail.
Having logged more than 100 dives in 2005 and only 1 in 2006, I was feeling a little bit rusty but also very excited to be back under water again. Our first dive spot was called as Hörgüçlü, named after two pinnacles which resembles a camel’s back. Wow! Incredible visibility, little bit of a current and 30+ degrees celcius water temperature. This is the first time my dive computer logged something warmer than 30 degrees, ever. I had not experienced such water temperatures even in Philippines during the rainy season. It was such a nice comeback for me.
Our second dive was even better. We dove the Fener spot which means lighthouse. Biber asked me to lead one of the dive groups. His team was caught shorthanded due to high demand that day. Since I felt like the rust was off my skills, I proudly accepted the offer. Aside from the groupers and horse mackerels joining our dive group occasionally, we got to see an Ottoman ship wreck starting at 22 m depth. Large pieces of amphoras scattered around the wreck and the wreck’s still intact wooden skeleton were the highlights of the dive. I came out of the water with a big smile on my face. As my scuba instructor Daniel Burgaud once wisely said “People dive for fun and diving makes them happy. If you love teaching diving as a professional, that puts you in a beautiful environment having good time with clients who are with you simply to have fun. There are only only few professions which provides you that.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Written by Kaan Bora on October 16th, 2007 with 1 comment.
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