Montenegro 2008

Caves 'n' Corals

All photography on this site by Estelle Sandford

Diving in Montenegro 2008

5th October

Flying out from Exeter airport, we arrived in Dubrovnik in Croatia and took hire cars on down into Montenegro. After around an hour or so which included a ferry crossing, we arrived at the Jemdivers Montenegro house which was to be our home for the next week. John has equipped the 6 bedroom house with the basics of accommodation and for diving an inflatable boat, minibus, compressor, weights and cylinders. This map shows the area we were covering.

The team consisted of John, Dave, Gwen, Bridget, Bill, Shaun, Jan, Tim, Nicola and me.

6th October

Up early and sorted the dive kit out and put the boat on the roof of the minibus to take down to Cove Zanjice. We put the boat in the water and loaded the engine, fuel, sounder and safety equipment and then loaded our kit and us divers. We took the short ride over to Mamula Island and did a shakedown dive off the back of the island on a reef. It extends to around 45m, so checked that out with buddy Dave. There was a thermocline at around 33m that dropped the temperature by 2 deg C to 17 deg! Very pleasant dive with a few fish about and a few fireworms to avoid! The viz noticeably dropped off at depth but was around 15m or so from about 20m upwards.

For the second dive we dived the wreck of Patrol Boat PBR 512 (built 1952) which lies in just over 20m of water. It was sunk in 1983 during target practice with ships rocket that tore through the wreck and provides easy penetration for divers. Found a moray eel sleeping in a tube and lots of fish sleeping on the deck. We chose to leave a shot on this for a planned night dive and also to moor the dive boat in the bay overnight. After the dive, we sampled the local beachfront restaurant food, which was excellent before heading back to base.

7th October

Another early rising and back down to the bay with a plan for a deeper wreck. Our plan was the SS Tihany, which was sunk in Feb 1917. With twinned up cylinders, this was a very pleasant dive with buddy Bridget. Lots of life and very pretty colours as well on the wreck. Unfortunately due to time constraints around getting supplies sorted and then fishermen dropping a net right across the entrance of the bay, we decided it was best to cancel our night dive for tonight and find out a bit more about the nets before planning another one.

8th October

The next days diving was the Blue Cave and Poseydon's City Cave which are opposite each other on the south side of peninsula Luštica. Blue Cave during the summer months has boat traffic going through it as an interesting tourist location. Both caves are an easy swim in fairly shallow water so went between them to see both. After the dive we emptied the boat and took a ride around towards Rose and took in the Submarine Tunnels, which were used to hide submarines during the wars. Some went snorkelling while those a little more interested in the caving ideal, decided to go and explore the engines, tanks and a ladder which goes up about 60ft. Dave climbed up but his torch failed so he couldn't see what was at the top unfortunately, but there is a building directly above the tunnel so suspect it probably comes out up there. Unfortunately when we arrived at Rose, nothing was open as very few tourists still about so back to our friendly cafe at Zanjice for a bite to eat. Had the most wonderful baked octopus in garlic, which was an interesting visual experience as well as culinary!
Having watched closely the laying of the nets tonight, we skirted around them and went to dive Patrol Boat PBR 512 again for a night dive. The same moray eel was in his tube and we also saw a conger eel inside the wreck. Buddy Gwen plucked a matador lobster of the side of the wreck and unfortunately managed to drop it on Bill who was just coming up to do his safety stop!

9th October

Fortress Corner (it didn't have a name so we had to call it something!) has Rt Mirista written next to it on the map, but not clear whether that is the peninsular or the fortress itself. It was a very similar dive to Mamula Island reef and extended to the same depth. Not so much to see at depth, but around 12m was loads of life under ledges and in the grasses.
For the second dive only 4 of us dived as the lads went off to Tivat to find a bar/food and we did a site John and Gwen named last trip out as Kingfisher Cave (there was a Kingfisher near it at the time) and I dived with Nicola on that one. Spotted a stonefish in the grasses and quite a few other fish about as well. After the dive we went off to the supermarket for supplies and then back to fill cylinders and eating/drinking in tonight.

10th October

For the last days diving, we went back to the SS Tihany for another dive. The viz wasn't as good as the previous dive, but still a very pleasant dive and grabbed a few more pictures during the dive. The second dive was chosen to be Fortress Corner as we'd had such a lovely dive on it last time and this time was even better with a lot of stonefish and scorpion fish and plenty of other small fish about as well. Back to base and started sorting the kit out and getting things ready to pack up the house so we would get a good day out tomorrow. Again our favourite cage on the beach did us proud.

11th October

A no diving day today and off on a daytrip to Budva, Cetinje and Kotor via some amazing mountain roads with spectacular views. Budva was quite interesting with a citadel to tour around, but had been quite modernised while Cetinje (which was the historic capital of Montenegro) was quite a quaint little town. Kotor, however was the most amazing place - beautifully fortified with a castle at the top of the hill and we found the most fantastic restaurant in the square where we enjoyed a meal and then as the sun was setting, we went up the steps to the castle ruins. It would have been nice to have been perhaps half an hour earlier as the sun was just setting a little too much as we were arriving at the top for the best pictures. After resting for a drink, we made our way back through the tunnel under the mountain and back along the country roads to the house.

12th October

Packed up the last of our kit and loaded up and as we all loved Kotor so much, we decided to go there for breakfast. We found the only place serving breakfast in the main square, which originally was the town hall, before taking a stroll along the harbour to look at the boats and then driving around the bay instead of crossing using the ferry, to arrive at Herceg Novi. We stopped for an explore and a bit of shopping and Herceg Novi before continuing the drive onto Dubrovnik and then catching our flight home!

Many thanks to Jemdivers and fellow dive companions for an excellent dive trip.