Located near the old town of Gjirokaster, Viroit Cave has been on my list of special dive locations I have wanted to visit for a long time. Unfortunately, there was not a lot of information available on the Internet about diving in this country. And regarding cave diving in Albania in particular, there was absolutely nothing. Even for a European country, it was a dark spot on the map.

The Italian scout cruiser Cesare Rossarol was a Poerio-class ship built at the Gio. Ansaldo & C. shipyard in Sestri Ponente. Entered into service on 1 August 1915, the Rossarol was actually a slender destroyer, 85m long and 8m wide. Her main armament comprised six cannons 102/45 and four torpedo launch tubes. With a displacement of 1,235 tons at full load, the Rossarol was able to reach a maximum speed of about 32 knots.

Some people say that open water is an extreme environment, so what would be a good reason to enter it at night? I say that night dives allow divers not only to feel like cosmonauts, but they can also explore a different underwater world. There are thousands of creatures in the ocean that hide during the day and are active at night. So, when the darkness comes, the show begins.

The wreck is remarkably well preserved; it is even said to be the world's best preserved Stuka bomber. The engine was placed in a different bay, probably torn off by the impact to the sea surface or abducted by fishing nets. Other than that, the plane stands almost completely intact on its wheels on the seabed at a depth of about 28m, as if it had just made a soft landing.

In recent years, I have had the chance to dive a series of mines. Mainly these were iron mines and slate mines, which have been opened for years to trained cave divers. However, as is the case everywhere, the law of supply and demand also applies to mine diving. The bigger the interest is, the more possibilities there are.

Sabine Kerkau is a German technical diver, dive writer and underwater photographer based in Switzerland.

For more information, please visit: Sabine-Kerkau.com.

Budapest is known for its spas. Their water originates from the volcanic earth. One of the most well-known springs is Malom (mill) Lake. The name lake is a slightly grand definition for a pond that becomes eutrophic in the summer. After a few hundred metres, it flows to the Danube. The lake was already known during the Ancient Roman period—divers have found Roman constructions at the bottom of the pond.

 

The sudden fall of the Berlin Wall changed the idea of an expedition to Lake Baikal from just wishful thinking to a project that was actually realisable. It would take time, but now here I am at last, and it is with a feeling of the surreal that I now sink down through the cold, clear water.

Deep diving in Lake Baikal

Reaching 1,642 meters at its deepest point, Lake Baikal, located in southern Siberia in Russia, is the deepest and largest freshwater lake by volume in the world. A typical dive site on Baikal is a shallow shelf, 10-200m long, turning into a vertical wall. There are only six sheer walls reaching more than 100-120m into the deep.

 

If there is any hidden secret in the Mediterranean, it is the island of Vis. For many years, it was a forbidden and restricted military area. It was not until 1991, when the iron curtain finally came down, that it was opened up for tourism and diving. On Vis, small picturesque port towns and spectacular wrecks, drop-offs and caverns are waiting to be discovered by divers.