THE BLUE HOLE
The Blue Hole is at Dwejra at the West of the island. It is an ‘interesting’ (for that read, rocky) shore access point, and those of us that are not natural mountain goats need to be wary whilst walking down to it. It’s worth it though, because this is probably the signature dive of Gozo. First of all, however, take a walk up the plateau to look down over it first (and check the conditions of course), look through the archway of the Azure Window to see the spectacular view of the cliffs, with all the different rock strata behind it.
The Blue Hole itself is about 16 metres deep, and the top of the archway that leads out into the open sea is at a convenient 6 metres. Depths of 50 metres are easily attainable beyond the Azure Window, but this site can provide a dive to suit all levels of qualification as the pinnacle of the Azure Window has ‘steps’ as visual reference and bottom.
Look out for all sizes of grouper, sardines, jacks and at the right time of year, barracuda, and of course the usual suspects of damselfish, cardinal fish, comber and wrasse etc.
On returning to the Blue Hole, at the back of it is a small cave which is well worth a visit if you have sufficient air. Be warned though that the bottom is very sandy, so good buoyancy is essential for fear of stirring up the viz. Take a moment when you exit, to pause and look out into the blue and see the silhouetted divers that are undoubtedly behind you, oh and the left side of the arch, if you use your imagination, looks like the side profile of a face.
Take time on your safety stop to look into the nooks and crannies at the small stuff – the soft corals have magnificent colours, and if you are lucky, there might be a lobster hiding too.
INLAND SEA
Inland Sea – is also situated at Dwerja, although it starts as a very shallow, confined, inland bay it’s also a tunnel that exits out into the open sea. However, it isn’t an overhead environment and you can surface at any point. You need to be careful though as you will see small shallow boats taking visitors through it on pleasure trips. The rules of the road are that the boats stay to the right (left on return), and divers stay on the left (right on return).
The pebbly bottomed tunnel itself shelves gently downwards and once out at the end (about 80m in length) where it exits to the open sea the sea bed will have dropped to about 50m. The abundant fish life is similar to the Blue Hole (mainly due to the close proximity to each other). Again, have a look at the wall of the tunnel and look in the crevices – you never know what you might find. Please keep an eye on your depth and air, because of the awesome visibility that is usually found there, can sometimes be distracting.
CROCODILE ROCK
If you squint a bit and use your imagination, the strangely shaped rock offshore from Dwejra and adjacent to the impending Fungus Rock could appear to be crocodile shaped. This dive is easier from a boat as the shoreline is very rocky, so care underfoot is essential if you do attempt it from land. The reef on the rock drops to about 30 then 50 metres, and round the back is Roger’s Cave which is worth having a look at. You’ve got a very good changes of seeing barracuda, amberjacks or dentex, and maybe even some of the larger group. Along the reef have a look for octopus, moray and scorpion fish in the nooks and crannies.
CORAL CAVE
Swimming out of the delightful shallows of Coral Gardens brings you to a ‘v’ shaped crevice in rock, swimming through that brings you out into the blue. With the wall on your left, an almost instant descent will bring you to Coral Cave, with its large entrance spanning 20 metres across, and a maximum depth of about 28 metres, sloping up towards the back at about 15 metres. You need a torch here to bring the vivid colours of the sponges and corals, especially the delicate lace coral, to life. On leaving the cave, follow the wall round on your right hand side and exit at the Blue