FACTFILE
GETTING THERE 8 Brittany Ferries
Portsmouth-St Malo, brittany-ferries.co.uk
DIVING 8 : Orca, Pula, orcadiving.hr, Blue Planet,
Dubrovnik, blueplanet-diving.hr
ACCOMMODATION 8 Arena Campsites, Pula,
arenacampsites. com; Solitude Camping,
Dubrovnik, camping-adriatic.com
WHEN TO GO 8 The winds are unpredictable at
any time of year in Croatia, so spring is still a
good bet to avoid the summer crowds.
.MONEY 8 Croatian kuna.
PRICES 8 Fuel for 2900-mile drive from Brighton
to Dubrovnik via Pula around £600. Channel
ferries return with cabin £570. Split-Brac ferries
£19-35 each way (depends on vehicle). Camping
£15-30 a night for two. Orca two boat-dives 56-
116 euros. Blue Planet 10-dive pack 286 euros.
VISITOR INFORMATION 8 croatia.hr, istria.hr,
dalmatia.hr, tzdubrovnik.hr27 divErWarmed to idiocy by wine (to quote the
writer Laurie Lee) and our heads roaring
with panic (to partially quote him again),
we approach our last hope – Orca Diving,
in Croatia’s far north.
I
ALWAYS LIKEto locate an unfamiliar
dive-centre the day before “ropes off ”.
Squabbling over directions is the last thing
a diving duo needs the morning before a
dive, especially when that duo is already
squabbled-out from hundreds of miles
together on the road.
It still seems windy but Olga, part-
owner of the family business, assures us
that we will be able to dive, though one
day looks better than the other. Orca again
sits at the foot of a large hotel, but clearly
operates quite independently of it.
The building is Tardis-like, unassuming
from the outside yet with a vast interior
Above: Ana in one of the
caverns.Above right: Removing fins
after the Pula boat-dive.complete with classroom, welcoming and
well-equipped.
Olga introduces us to her son and dive-
guide/instructor Marin, who is eager to
show us the house reef, the only site
accessible if the wind drops enough to
allow us out on the boat the following day.
We pull on our drysuits and Marin his
5mm wetsuit – he is clearly made from
tougher stuff than us, with the water still
only 13 °C in spring. Clarity is reasonable
and the beige rock and sand seabed drops
gradually to 15m. At this time of year the
marine life is just starting to return,
though Marin does find us three conger
eels during our hour-long dive.
He leads us to a pile of broken Roman
amphoras before pointing out a crab
wearing a sponge shower cap and eating a
starfish beside a small sunken paddleboat.
Although sparse in places, the yellow
sponges add a splash of colour. Marin
looks into every hole for items of interest
to show us, including many nudibranchs.
The remains of an 18th-century ship’s
mast appear out of the turquoise, and in
places small shoals of fish are present.
Marin must have done this dive hundreds
of times, yet still has much to enthuse
about once we're out of the water.CROATIA DIVER
divErNEt.com
We are pumped for diving again, and
sense not only great vibes about the dive-
centre but Pula as a diving, and indeed
city-break, destination.
Campsites are already filling up with
motorhomes from every corner of Europe,
and we check out a couple before settling
into Stoja Camping.
We note that many of the sites, most of
which are coastal, have their own dive-
centres, but we remain loyal to Orca.W
ITH PLENTY OF WINDstill about,
we make a short swim out to Orca’s
hardboat to spare its hull from the
concrete jetty. Marin is taking the two of
us to one of his favourite sites, Fraskeric.
Four beautiful caverns start at just 3m
and eventually take us to a maximum
depth or around 20m. “Rays of light break
through holes in the ceiling of the shallow
tunnels at certain times of day, and this
can be a spectacular sight,” he tells us.
The location is also known for its free-
and night-diving and seahorses, we hear.
Boat travel time is minimal, and we
arrive kitted up. Currents are no problem
as we follow marin to the seabed.
I’m a sucker for a cavern dive and it
feels great to be embarking on some
underwater exploration after so many
disappointments. One by one we discover
the caverns, some appearing as gaping
black holes on initial entry, with a hue of
blue appearing at the exit-point once our
eyes have adjusted.
Some entrances and exits are narrower
than others, with the tunnel requiring a
vis-killing wriggle between rock and sand
at the seabed.
This is in no way a “cave dive”, but it’s
an exciting one for a recreational diver. We
eke out an hour of exploration before the
cold creeps in and air consumption sends
us skywards for the last time in Croatia.
Orca Diving has saved our drive-and-dive
adventure with this epic final immersion.
We learnt a lot in Croatia. We learnt the
importance of digesting online company
reviews prior to a visit; the need to allow
ourselves plenty of contingency time; and
not to sleep in a van outside bars full of
drunken locals.