This morning John, Bob, Stuart and myself went scuba diving.  We often go when we are in Cyprus, usually diving with Cyprus Scuba Shack on Escape Beach.  This time however, the Scuba Shack gang were up in the Karpaz all weekend so we had to search out an alternative.  We found a great dive centre based at the Manolya Hotel in Lapta.  Really friendly people, nice boat, hire kit and the price was right at £30 each fully equipped.  We got there at 9, were on the boat for 930, in the water by 950.  We dived part of the reef called Zephiros which is very good.  Quite a lot of fish by Med. standards plus a nice drop off, huge rocks, octopi, tuna, grouper….  The water was like a hot bath down to about 20m then there was a sharp thermocline.  Anyway, we had a lovely dive, good visibility and no current.

Got back to the house in time for lunch which we had on the terrace and then we pegged out around the pool for the afternoon.  It’s still a steady 35C and sunny.

Tonight we went up to Pamela and Eddie’s house at 5pm as we were invited for drinks.  Such a lovely house.  We had a good chat and catch up and then we went down to Calamari on the seashore in Lapta for dinner.

An enormous meal!   Sue and Stuart both had the fish meze and it was endless.  12 cold starters, 9 hot starters, then a whole sea bass, chips, veg, then cake and coffee.  It was huge!  And all for £15.  I had calamari with veg, and you got about 5 meze plates with that too plus chips and salad, mash and veg.  Bob had a beef chop.  John had sheftali and Fiona and a mega mixed grill.  We could hardly walk by the end of it.  Amazing value especially given the superb seaside setting.

Up early in the morning as Stuart and John are due to paraglide from the top of the Besparmak Mountains.  Watch this space for pix!