The Wild Coast

Sugar-sand beaches combined with predictable sunshine hours and cheap accommodation attract more than five million visitors to the Costa Brava each year, resulting in resorts bloated with tourists. But, although certain areas have been swallowed up by concrete, the remaining parts of the coastline are under strict protection as designated national parks and underwater life has flourished. Just 10m under the waves are brightly coloured forests of red and yellow gorgonians that quiver in the current, with the hundreds of polyps that lace their branches straining greedily into the surrounding waters to find food. Steep cliffs drop into the sea below, where the unrelenting pounding of waves has created caves and overhangs in which lobsters, crabs and prawns can hide. Anemones cover rocks and walls, and seahorses in a variety of shades can be found clinging to the coral, while huge groupers patrol the open water.

The Costa Brava encompasses the area between Blanes in Spain and the French border to the north. The attractive landscape along this coastline consists of beaches, high cliffs and forested coves. The best diving in the Costa Brava can be easily broken up into four distinct areas: Cap de Creus, with its steep cliffs and pretty bays; the Medes Islands, now a national marine park; Sant Feliu de Guixols with a house reef that will keep you entertained for days and the small beach towns of Tamariu and Calella with remarkable diving.

MEDES ISLANDS
These seven islets, just one mile from the tourist resort of L’Estartit, were made into a nature reserve in 1990 and almost 1,500 species of marine life have been recorded here. The rugged mountainous islands continue beneath the water’s surface as steep cliff faces, fissured gullies and caves. Creatures can be unusually bold with divers, no doubt due to the strict protection measures put into place by the authorities.

Big, fat, friendly groupers, some more than a metre in length, will allow themselves to be stroked by divers. It’s clear that this amicable behaviour stems from forbidden feeding by unscrupulous divers, yet however divided your thoughts on the natural behaviour of fish, it’s a lot of fun to scratch a grouper’s back!

Numbers are limited to 450 divers per day, which are divided between the eight dive centres that are permitted to operate in the area.

Best dive sites
Dofi South: an entrance leads you to a branching but easily navigated cave system at a depth of 12m. The high point is diving through an 80m-long tunnel, wide enough to easily take two cars side by side! If you have good visibility, you can just about get a glimpse of the shimmering blue at the other end. As you exit you are surrounded by beautiful gorgonians and the ever-present groupers.

Cavall Bernat: this is the definitive home of the grouper. They happily swim right up to you, albeit with an arrogant swagger in their swim, and eye you up and down to see if you have any food. In the open water a little way from the cliff face, eagle rays can often be seen cruising by.

dive centres
Les Illes
Tel: 00 34 972 751239,
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web site: http://www.hotellesilles.com.

La Sirena Tel: 00 34 972 750954,
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web site: http://www.la-sirena.net.

CAP DE CREUS
This inhospitable-looking land is the last foothill of the Pyrénées and also where the Spanish mainland comes to an end. Salvador Dalí lived in nearby Cadaqués, and it’s easy to see how the eerie windswept scenery could have inspired him. The area was declared a nature reserve in 1998 and the combination of steep cliffs that drop sharply into the sea, and the frenetic activity of the marine life found in small protected bays, makes for some great diving.

If you intend to head for this area, avoid the tourist metropolis that is the Gulf of Roses and make for Cala Joncols instead. Centres at both the Gulf of Roses and Cala Joncols will take you diving at Cap de Creus, but there is no diving worthy of mention in the Gulf. It’s almost always possible to dive at Cala Joncols as many of the bays in the area are protected against the weather. Boat trips are also shorter, as it is closer to Cap de Creus.

Best dive sites
Cap Norfeo: the best site in the area. Work your way along the steep wall, overgrown with red gorgonians. The perpendicular rock-face reaches a depth of 45m, but you don’t need to go that deep – in the 20–30m area there are plenty of langoustines, conger eels, moray eels, and scorpionfish, all vying for your attention.

Punta de la Trona: a shallower site, where the cliff wall reaches a depth of 20m at the sea bed. Gorgonians grow along the overhangs, and the walls are encrusted with anemones, while inside the caves shrimp and lobster, as well as seahorses, are among the attractions.

Dive centres
Diving Center Porto Christo
Tel: 00 34 972 387062,
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web site: http://www.eden-roc.de.

Up & Down Scuba Center Cadaqués
Tel: 00 34 972 159075,
e-mail: up& This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ,
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Carpe Diem Club
Tel: 00 34 972 258131,
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web site: http:/ http://usuarios.intercom.es/carpe96/scuba

Roses Sub Euro Diving
Service Tel: 00 34 972 254645,
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web site: http://www.euro-diving-rosas.de.

Poseidon Roses
Tel: 00 34 972 255772,
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web site: http://www.intercom.es/diveposeidonroses.

Pro-Dive Center
Tel: 00 34 972 254645,
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web site: http://www.euro-diving-rosas.de.

Tauchschule Karl-Heinz Lubbe
Tel: 00 34 972 451053,
web site:http://www.maurici-parc-diving.de.

TAMARIU/CALELLA
The area between Palamos town and Cap de Begur is the most beautiful diving area in the Costa Brava. This is where you’ll see more differently coloured gorgonians than anywhere else along the coast – they cover every surface. Even at Cape de Creus and the Medes Islands, they don’t seem to flourish as they do here. They grow in the most heavenly red and yellow, in narrow gullies and cliffs – it’s a real eye-opener, and not just for underwater photographers.

Around the rocky reef you’ll meet a huge number of other residents of the Mediterranean animal world, such as large prawns, lobsters, conger eels and grouper. Night dives on the reefs will leave you with a truly unforgettable impression. There’s even a wreck nearby – the Boreas was cleaned in 1989 and was artificially sunk some way from the entrance to the harbour of Palamos. It’s about 30m long and lies upright at 30m.

Best dive sites
Tamariu Reef: this is the best-known dive site. The huge underwater rock formations here are like the fingers of an enormous hand, and the fissured gullies are smothered with colourful gorgonians. The rock walls start from 10m, reaching a depth of 30m, and there is a wealth of life. Small grottos and swim-throughs complete the picture. Ten dives here would only just give you an idea of how much there is to see here.

Boreas wreck: This easy-to-dive wreck rests on an even sandy bed. Shoals of bream in the bridge area pose for the camera, and the broken chimney stacks have become new homes for marine animals. Details such as the anchor, winches and the wheel have remained intact. Some parts of the ship were gutted, making it easy to penetrate the wreck, but other more confined spaces such as the command bridge should be accessed only by experienced wreck divers.

Dive centres
Stolli’s Tauchbasis
Tel: 00 34 972 620245,
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web site: http://www.stollis-divebase.de.

Poseidon Nemrod Club
Tel: 00 34 972 615345,
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SANT FELIU DE GUIXOLS
Sant Feliu – or more specifically the Eden Roc Hotel which was built directly on to a reef – is perfectly situated for diving, and you can do all your diving without a boat! However, even after two weeks of diving here, you’d find it hard to get bored. The 2km-square reef reaches depths of 36m and has numerous cliff walls and fissured gullies, as well as diveable caves and caverns. Although the marine life is plentiful and varied, there isn’t the same level of gorgonian growth that can be found elsewhere – but in exchange for this, there is little current and other different types of marine life.

This is really the last place worth visiting before you go any further south. The underwater topography becomes flatter and isn’t broken up by so many steep cliffs, which makes the coastline less interesting. The wider beaches that can be found further south mean that this is where you’ll find more sun-hungry tourists, and the lack of rocky surfaces means that marine life is uninteresting.

Best dive site
Swim over the sloping reef, and at 10m you will already have reached some small caves with groupers standing guard at the entrances. As you move on to the gullies beyond, you’ll reach a depth of 27m and 28m where there are two entrances to some enormous caverns. The ceiling and walls are encrusted with anemones and colourful sponges. Lobsters and conger eels, cod and goatfish, crabs and prawns – everything seems to be here. Every gully is worth a dive, and on each visit you’re likely to encounter new things: seahorses, brooding female octopuses and moray eels.

Dive centres
Eden Roc Diving Center SL
Tel: 00 34 972 325387,
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web site:http://www.eden-roc.de.

TRAVEL TIPS
Equipment: Cylinders that are more than six years old or haven’t been tested within the last year will need to have a visual inspection. If you arrive and refuse to have your cylinder visually tested, your cylinder will not be filled.

Visa: Not necessary for EU citizens.

Currency: Spanish Peseta. Most hotels, dive centres and restaurants will also take credit cards.

Decompression chambers: The nearest is at the hospital in Palamos.

Climate: Mediterranean, with dry, hot summers and cold, wet winters. An unusual aspect of the Costa Brava is the Tramuntana, a gusty, cold wind that comes from the Pyrénées, and whose speed can reach 100km per hour. Water temperature is between 14ºC and 17ºC from November to May, and between 20ºC and 23ºC during June to October, with summer air temperatures in the high 20ºCs and between 10ºC and 15ºC in winter.

When to go: The high season is from June to September. The best visibility is in July and August. Unless you’re there in the hottest months we’d recommend a semi-drysuit.

Accommodation: Anything from luxury hotels, guesthouses, apartments and holiday homes, to cheap bed-and-breakfasts and camping.

Language: Spanish, but dive centre staff usually speak English too.

Electricity: 220V

Translation by Siski Green