Varna, Bulgaria Day 2

Varna, Bulgaria Day 2

We just had a crazy chain of events happen today that are almost unexplainable, but I will try my best to get the idea across. It was one of those days where events begin to unfold and when you look back, you realize that if one thing was changed, all others would have never happened. Here is a list of the crazy things that happened today: ate mussels from a sea side restaurant that harvests them right on site, dove in the Black Sea, explored a rather large sunken steamship, met 2 very friendly Brits, met an ex special forces Scotsman dive master named Scott, met and hung out with a Kazakstan chick getting her MBA in Bulgaria that speaks 5 languages, rode in a modified Land Rover across the northern section of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, rode in an inflatable RIB boat like animals to get to the dive site catching air a few times, and now it begins.

The man of the day was Scott, the dive man. I got his email address from the Internet after searching for dive operations in the Varna area. His site was the most professional, and luckily, is still in operation. The other sites looked like they closed up shop, but Scott's site outlined the wrecks that he will tour and a brief history of the area. The emails went back and forth with logistics working themselves out and we settled on a time, price, and location. We were to meet in the next town to the north of Varna called Golden Sands. We slammed down breakfast, packed the bag, and headed to the bus station. Right next to the Assumption Cathedral we boarded the 409 bus to Golden Sands. The problem here was getting the ticket from the attendant. She did not speak English and everyone else on there was a local going to work. The tickets were purchased and the bus took us to the last stop of the line in Golden Sands.

The directions were to meet 2 girls in a Land Rover at the Police Station. In the hustle and bustle of people leaving the train and my excitement to dive, I must have overlooked the little station, and now we were headed into the tourist section of the town with shops galore and restaurants. We made it all the way to the end of town and asked for help in a hotel. When we asked about diving or a dive shop, once again we were looked at like we had 2 heads, and this person spoke English. Ok... Now we are late for the pick up that will take us to the dive boat, and have to try again to find the police station. We turned back to head to the bus stop and thought we would look again for the Land Rover and if it could not be found, head back to Varna on the bus and call it quits for diving.

This is where luck took over. Upon reaching the bus station, we found the police station and saw a Land Rover driving around with the girls in the truck. They slowed by us and asked if we were the Americans. Whew!!! We had made it. Instead of calling it quits for the day and heading back, we were now in for a terrific day of diving and meeting new friends. The Rover was on it's last pass before heading back to the dive site after giving up hope of finding us. Our paths luckily crossed at the exact time by chance. By doing so, it made for one heck of a day.

The driver was Nick, a British lady that loves to dive and has driven large trucks in the past. The dude riding shotgun, was Neal, a traveler and shipping business guy that had worked with Nick in the past. In the passenger seat in the back was Malika, a girl born and raised in Kazakstan attending school in Bulgaria working on her MBA. Still no dive guide, and I was under the impression the dive site was just up the road a bit where Scott would be. This Rover was tricked out a bit with a tent mounted on top 2" lift, yellow steel wheels, steel bumpers, winch, snorkel, 2 batteries, lights, and seating for 7 with the fold down back seats. Oh yeah..... It was a diesel inline 5 cylinder. Talk about torque and a sound like you can not get in the States.

The drive was not just a jaunt up the road to the dive site. For an hour we crossed many farms, a small city, a wind farm, and many hills until finally arriving at a cove nestled in the cliffs. Man! We were far north of Varna and at a site with two jetties securing the tranquil water and a screaming yellow RIB boat. We were another hour north of Golden Sands in the country on a desolate stretch of beach. This is where we met Scott. And boy, did we!

Scott is a Scottish bloke about 5'9" with blonde flat top hair. He is thick and built to smash things. He started out with polite introductions and wanted to verify that Katherine was the beautiful woman I was talking about in the emails. He had gear all laid out for us next to the his Land Rover and we tried it on to check the fit. Interestingly, it looks as if he brought the dive shop to us. The fit was great and we had a glimpse of Scott's humor, which was a hint as to what would happen.

The boat crew consisted of me, Katherine, Scott, Nick, Malika, and Neal. We headed north along the coast towards Romania. The coastline had cliffs and waves were lightly crashing on the rocks below. The bright yellow rib boat held us tightly and we were traveling at speeds that let us skip across the tops of the waves. We finally arrived at a location with a scattered wreck, or at least it was supposed to be. We geared up and and did our backwards rolls off the boat. I was a little concerned that the water temps would be chilly not allowing a long dive. We were to mostly stay shallow since the wreck was scattered in the shoreline. Scott and Neal stayed in the boat and the rest of us headed down below.

We must have missed the wreck, but saw some very interesting and different things I was unaccustomed to. The sand below was littered with hermit crabs about one inch long all in perfect clarity in the shallow water. They seems to crawl away from you as you approached which created a swarming effect. There were no large fish but we saw a few that were orange and purple iridescent ones about 4 inches long. I will have to consult the fish guide to get names in the next day or two to properly identify these guys. Also interesting was the amount of crabs. We saw some rock crabs with large pinchers that would back up in to the rocks for protection. You would have to go right up to them and get a closer look. Nick's light made this a little easier, illuminating the dark homes in which they hid. Overall, the large rocks were covered in mussels, shells, and small amounts of seaweed, created an intriguing three dimensional dive, and even though we did not find the wreck, we still had a great time exploring this new Black Sea environment.

45 minutes later, we surfaced. This was much longer than I expected in the cold water. Normally in these temps I can't stay down too long. Scott and Neal quickly approached to make the pick-up. We stripped our gear and crawled into the boat and headed off to another location. Scott was let down that we missed the wreck and wanted to be sure that we found the next one. We tore off to the south and prepared the new full tanks to make the next dive.

This new site had a large rock used as a reference, so we could be sure to find this large steamship wreck. We were told that the wreck is scattered in the rocks close to shore and should be obvious with the large boilers. This was all correct and the dive went off without a hitch. Coming upon the first few scraps of metal excited us, so we throughly inspected them, not knowing that a little bit farther would be some huge pieces and the boilers. This dive would only last 30 minutes which blew by since the debris was so interesting. This wreck was much larger than expected and I don't think that we even got to the end of the debris field. Underwater, I try to imagine what this ship was like thrashing in the rocks being unable to free itself. It must have been loud and the destruction surely took a while to scatter such a large ship across so many rocks. We popped up at the 30 min mark and the yellow RIB boat took us back to the cove. Katherine was a little chilly and the weather started to move in with wind and a bit of rain.

Now since we were all getting to know each other the craziness started to escalate. The boat had to be unloaded, gear disassembled, and wetsuits removed. Scott graciously helped Katherine undress her wetsuit and gave her a brief massage. Way to go Scott. The Rovers were loaded up and the boat was put back on the trailer. We then decided to go for some seafood at the local mussel farm. It was a short drive south along the road and down a steep grade ending at the water. Scott is a regular patron of the restaurant and told us what to order, and that was.... a giant bucket of mussels. Just offshore you could see the crane and mussel cages that are lowered and raised into the water. Holy geeze wheeze! This was some of the best seafood I have had and rivals the steamed shrimp I would get as a kid along the Choctawhatchee bay along the coast in Florida. Scott filled us in on some wonderful Scottish jokes and the Brit humor was running rampant with Nick and Neal. Us, as Americans, had to play catch up to understand the conversation at times. The sun was setting, the rain stared coming down, and I could hardly believe the place we were in and the company we had and the food that we were eating. What a wonderful day and the people we met only added to the experience. Scott kept going and going and we asked him all about the Black Sea and his history with diving and his life. A truly interesting guy! If this guy met Atilla from Turkey, they would go on and on till the sun came up.

As quick as we made friends with Scott, we had to then depart for the evening. Once again it was sad to leave and we received a warm whole hearted good bye. The whole day was a flash and I felt as if I was in a trance. Scott was not a guy you can understand all at once and the events of the day were almost not comprehendible.

We then returned to the hostel via a wonderful ride with Nick and Neal. We dropped Malika at her apartment and headed in to tell Andrew what happened to us all day. It was now almost 9 pm and we told Andrew that we would be there by 4 or 5. Oops. We came into the hostel and he was chilling in the bed, perfectly content, and took the news well about our day.

Some people say that rainy days are no fun. Today was proof that with the proper friends and some good luck you can embark on something truly great. If we missed them in the parking lot in the Rover, none of this would have happened. I almost gave up and pursuing the goal gave us a wonderful reward. I just sat in the bed afterwards trying to comprehend the day and only was able to write a few paragraphs. The night's sleep was great and the day is something to truly be remembered.