The Balearics

Hordes of Brits visit these islands every year, but what’s the underwater action like? DIVE readers give us the lowdown. Report by Kate Quarry. Photographs by Gavin Newman

Where to go
The Balearics consist of four main islands, Formentera, Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca, and 11 uninhabited islets. Mallorca is the largest and most developed island, Ibiza is well known as a major summer destination for clubbers and Menorca is a quieter, more family-oriented island. Formentera is the smallest island and lies very close to Ibiza.

If you are staying during the peak summer season, it is essential to pre-book your accommodation and diving. The Balearics generally experience very good visibility, and the islands are well known for underwater caverns and caves: many of the dive centres run cave and cavern speciality courses. Some of the best sites include:

Ibiza: sites in the Cala d’Hort Marine Nature Reserve, established two years ago and situated on the southwest coast of Ibiza.
Mallorca: dives around Sa Dragonera, an island on the western tip of Mallorca, which is also a marine reserve; the caverns and four wrecks of El Dique del Oeste; Islas Magrat, which has a steep drop-off.
Menorca: the Moon Pool, a site for divers with cave experience, as it includes a swim through a long tunnel; the wreck of the Malakoff; Pont D’en Gil Cavern; the Coral Galleries.

When to go
Dry, warm weather obviously makes May to October the best period to go, but many dive centres stay open all year round. Outside the peak season some restaurants and other facilities may be closed.

What to wear
Even in summer you will need at least a 5mm full-body suit. A thicker semi-dry or a drysuit is preferable at other times of year.
What to look out for

Grouper, barracuda, scorpionfish, morays, octopus, damselfish, wrasse and bream
of various kinds, sardines, starfish and squirrelfish. More rarely you may see
John Dory, mola mola (sunfish), swordfish or dolphins.

Air And Water temperatures
The coolest month is January, with lows of around 14°C, rising to about 29°C in July. Underwater it could be as warm as 25°C in late summer, but is usually about 22°C, dropping to around 12°C in winter.

Champagne diver - Ian Ross

Ian Ross, 34, has a doctorate in biochemistry and lives just outside Cambridge. He’s been a diver for about ten years, and is a BSAC open water instructor and advanced diver. He’s engaged to Sally who, like Ian, is a member of Cambridge SAC. They went on a trip to Cala ’n Bosch, Menorca, organised by a member of their dive club.

Seven of us flew from Luton to Menorca in the last week of February for a week’s diving. We stayed in two chalets and dived with Crystal Seas, a centre that had been used previously by other members of the club. The diving compares well with other diving I’ve done in the Mediterranean. The caves are good, as is the marine life, but not as good as in the Red Sea.

One of the most memorable dives was on the wreck of the 7,000-ton Malakoff, which went down in 1929. There are a couple of boilers and the rest of the wreckage is broadly spread out. As we went down there was a shoal of barracuda, swimming fast and furious, and we saw quite a few speckled morays. Another wreck that’s good fun is the Ocean Diver, a smaller boat, said to have been involved in drug trafficking, which went down in the 1960s. It was a bit rough trying to get in, and one member of the party definitely wasn’t happy, but we went in and saw the bikes on the deck, the washing machine, lots of galley rubbish, and a big scorpionfish.
We were diving on air, but the dive centre can accommodate twin-sets, and some of the instructors dived on trimix on deeper dives. On cavern dives we had an SMB line to follow and everyone was counted in and counted out. The dive-centre staff were also very accommodating – they organised a cake for Sally’s birthday and knew about my plans for one of the dives on that day. I hid a bottle of champagne in an SMB in my pocket and at the end of the dive I shook it up, the cork popped underwater and we drank it at 6m. It was fine because we were in safe conditions.

On the last day we dived Pont D’en Gil Cavern, a classic dive. You swim through some narrow canyons and surface in a pool with stalagmites and stalactites. You then go back under, downstream and back up again. Just outside of the cavern three cuttlefish approached us. We watched them for about five minutes and it was as
if they were saying goodbye to us. It really was a great trip, one of the best holidays I’ve had recently.


Fish gallery - Isabelle Collins

Isabelle Collins lives in Hove and is a management consultant who describes herself as ‘over 40’. She learned to dive seven years ago in the Cayman Islands, and is a member of the Brighton Undersea Group. She regularly dives with S’Algar Diving on the south coast of Menorca.

I first dived with S’Algar Diving because it was handiest to where I was staying in S’Algar, but I’ve been there lots since. It’s just a really nice place and the dive centre, which is British-run, is very friendly. With the exception of one or two, the dive sites are very close to the centre, so you can choose whether or not to do both the daytime dives: I usually do either the morning or the afternoon dive. I prefer S’Algar to the Red Sea, where you spend the whole day out on the boat and you’re knackered by the evening. I also like the fact that I’ve got to know the people there.

Most dives are boat dives and on the whole they are nice, but not spectacular. My favourite site is the Coral Galleries and I’m also quite fond of Stanley’s Drop-Off. There’s lots of life and sometimes you encounter curtains of fish What you see depends on the time of year – at one time you might see shoals of barracuda and at another a lot of slipper lobsters. There are loads of moray eels and you do see rays, but they’re hard to spot and are ever so small. I once saw a mother and juvenile ray, which was very sweet! Divers do see bigger things, but I’m always the one who wasn’t on the boat when something really exciting happens. On one occasion everyone came back and said they’d seen whales, and another time dolphins – I was very annoyed not to see the dolphins.

There are wrecks to dive, although I haven’t dived them, but I’ve done some cavern dives. I wouldn’t do any dives that involved swimming through passages. I’m a sightseer, and there’s nothing to see in dark caves and tunnels. It’s very parky at the start of the season and some people do wear drysuits then, but they’re the exception. I dive in a 5mm two-piece, but by the end of the season I’m only wearing half of it.

When I go to S’Algar I stay in a self-catering place. The area attracts families and isn’t particularly lively – it doesn’t have clubs and discos. The seafront is rocky rather than sandy, which I think is quite nice, and there is a really lovely sandy beach about ten minutes’ walk away. I now fly to Menorca on the new, direct flights with British Airways, which leave at a civilised time, are cheaper than the charters at the moment, and have more legroom.


Clear water - Phil Knock

Phil Knock, 40, lives in Dereham, Norfolk, with his partner, Tracey. He works for a trailer manufacturer. He learned to dive with BSAC in 1989 and describes himself as a committed North Sea diver until he discovered the clear waters of Ibiza.

I bought my own RIB in 1993 and spent weekends taking groups on diving trips in the North Sea, but when I got divorced I sold the boat. Since then – especially since I discovered the Mediterranean – I haven’t done much diving in the UK. I’ve been on about ten trips to Ibiza.

The first time I went was on a trip organised by a friend, Mark Boyce, diving with the Sea Horse Sub-Aqua Centre on Ibiza, which is run by Jeff, a friend of Mark’s. The diving in Ibiza is fantastic, especially at the Cala d’Hort Marine Nature Reserve, near San Antonio, which is excellent.

Nothing had prepared me for the visibility in Ibiza. It’s an incredible experience to sit on the bottom at 40m and see all the way up to the boat. The Forest of Gorgonia, a site in the marine reserve, is to die for – it has the most amazing display of coral fans between about 30 and 50m. Another site I really like, which is also in the marine reserve, is the Haystack. It’s a pinnacle of rock that attracts a mass of fish. Down at 25m there’s a Lambretta scooter, sitting on the bottom, which is fun for photographs – I don’t know how it got down there, as the site’s a good three miles off Ibiza.

My favourite part of the Cala d’Hort Reserve is a dive called Ses Margalides, where you swim down the cliff face, go through a small tunnel and work your way back, swimming through an archway – it’s awesome. At one site, Dick’s Point, which is known for its two huge groupers, I’ve sat there for several minutes on a rock underwater just looking at the view. The fish life has definitely improved since the marine reserve was created two years ago: one site in particular, the Abyss at Esparta Island, was quite barren when I first dived it, but is now getting increasing numbers of fish; and the Haystack is completely surrounded by fish all the time. Another site that’s good for shoals is a sunken fisheries platform off Formentera, which attracts a lot of barracuda. I’ve even been in the water with dolphins out there: we were coming back from a dive when we came upon a pod of dolphins – in about three seconds we were all in snorkelling, and the dolphins were rolling over to look at us. It was an awesome experience.

Ibiza’s known for its bars and clubs, but it also has some amazing scenery. I usually stay in Port des Torrent, near San Antonio, either in a hotel or, more recently, in Mark’s timeshare. Port des Torrent has quite a lot of hotels and some really nice bars, but it still has a village atmosphere. When I went there in March this year a lot of the bars were closed as it was out of season, and it was good to go out to the places the locals were going to. Over there the diving’s easy – you can do three good-quality dives a day, and then have a really good time going out in the evenings. In the UK it would take between ten and 12 hours just to do two dives, probably spending a total of less than an hour underwater. I’m planning more trips to Ibiza, and Mark loves it so much there that he’s started running Ibiza’s first liveaboard.