More Detailed information and specific itineraries in our:
Basic and advanced diving guide in the Medas Islands, coming soon!
Diving in the Medas Islands: Salpatxot
In this dive we propose a calm and easy itinerary (open water level, beginner or similar, with depths always above 20 meters) in the Medas Islands marine reserve.
Located in the northern part of the archipelago, north of the Meda Gran and in front of the Medallot, it is a good option when southerly winds blow.
Salpatxot dive itinerary
This area has two dives, ‘el Guix’ and ‘Salpatxot’. Here we explain the route for the Salpatxot, although the dive in the Guix would be very similar in terms of flora, fauna and orography of the seabed.
The areas of interest to highlight in this dive are the large meadow of posidonia that we find just at the beginning of the dive and the large blocks of stone (W direction) full of gorgonians and with lots of life such as groupers, scorpion fish, meagre, breams,…
l’Estartit Marina, with the distinctive Roca Maura
After making the impressive Diving in the Medas Islands: The Dolphin Cave this morning, we set out for our second dive of the day, the Salpatxot dive.
We head to l’Estartit Marina, on the Costa Brava, where the omnipresent Roca Maura gives this small port its distinctive touch.
We grab our tank, check the equipment, get ready and get on the boat! In less than 10 minutes we are already at the dive site, north of the Meda Gran.
Seabed of posidonia meadow with large stone blocks
We descend by the buoy chain (fixing the mooring buoy to a slab on the bottom) to -16m and we will explore the posidonia seabed, it is very nice.
The Salpatxot is one of the few dives in the Medes Islands that enjoys a bottom of this aquatic plant, endemic to the Mediterranean.
Brown meagres
Grouper among the rocks and gorgonians
We continue now in the direction towards l’Estartit (W direction) to visit the big stone blocks (with a wingspan of 8 to 10 m) at a depth of 13/15 meters, with colorful gorgonians all around them, in purple, lilac and red colors. It’s fascinating!
Exploring this beautiful and peculiar diving area of the Medas Islands, we see a lot of life such as big and calm groupers, meagres, sea bass, etc. In this dive everything seems to go slowly and calmly! We will also see schools of bream and mojarras and some dentex, sea breams and barracudas.
Big groupers
Si nos fijamos en los huecos de las rocas veremos también todo tipo de fauna pequeña: vacas cabrillas, alfonsitos, cangrejos, peces tres colas,..
If we look in the hollows of the rocks we will also see all kinds of small fauna: painted combers, cardinalfish, crabs, swallowtail seaperch, ….
Comber among lilac gorgonians
Cardinalfish fish hidden in a hollow in the rocky seabed
Continuaremos explorando esta zona. Los colores de las gorgonias aquí son espectaculares y tenerlas a esta poca profundidad hace que está inmersión sea todo un lujo.
Detail of the gorgonians on the rocks
Detail of the gorgonians on the rocks
Detail of the gorgonians on the rocks
We see many schools of mojarras passing between the gorgonian rocks, more combers, horned blenny fish perched on the rocks, we love them! 😊
Comber
Horned blenny fish
También pasaremos por algún arco entre las rocas,..
Arch of rocks
Finally we return the same way we went. On the way back we see a fairly large jellyfish.
These white jellyfish with blue trim can be quite large but are not very dangerous. Sometimes we will see juvenile horse mackerel and bogue taking refuge under their tentacles.
They are surface-dwelling; we will find them at depths of up to 10 meters. In this case we saw it besieged by sea breams trying to eat it!
White jellyfish, at the end of the dive
A calm but very complete dive, where we will have the chance to explore the beautiful seabeds of this marine reserve area full of life, ideal for photographers!
Undoubtedly Medas Islands marine reserve, is a paradise that we all must take care of and preserve.
Other possibilities
The Guix itinerary
Similar to the described itinerary, we can go to explore the area of the dive called ‘el Guix’. Simply instead of making a turn in W direction, we will do it in E direction (opposite direction to l’Estartit).
More Detailed information and specific itineraries in our:
Basic and advanced diving guide in the Medas Islands, coming soon!
Otras inmersiones en las Islas Medas
- El Dofí
- Salpatxot
- Carall Bernat
- Tascó Petit
- Pedra de Déu
- La Vaca
- Pota del Llop
- Tascó Gros
- Embarcador del Francès
- Les Ferranelles
You can also consult more information about diving in the marine reserve in our Guide to the best dives in the Medes Islands.
Our diving center in l’Estartit is Les Illes, for its service and personal attention, with more than 35 years of experience in the diving sector, making us enjoy our dives in the Medes Islands.
