East/West Reef and Caves (Wied iz-Zurrieq)

East Reef, Wied iz-Zurrieq

Entering the water in the valley, start to follow the cliff wall to the left side. It is full of colorful sponges. The bottom of the wall is some 25 meters, look out for lobsters and moray eels. It is easy to navigate here. Just make a U-turn and start following the wall back to the bay, you will come across many big boulders. Look in between these boulders for large fish like grouper, bream and brown meaghers.

West Reef and Caves, Wied iz-Zurrieq

This is a very popular dive which starts with an entry from a small, narrow quay. We first go down to 10 meters in the inlet and swim across to the far side. Take the wall turning left and head out towards the open sea. Keeping the rocky shoreline to our right, we drop down to between 12-30 meters and follow the natural contours of the reef. On the reef is the incredible ‘bell tower cave’ which has 3 narrow entrances. The largest of these, at 27 meters, has enough room for 2-3 divers and is full of cardinal fish.

Leaving the cave, we progress along the reef wall where we often find many fish. Look for painted combers, damsel fish, rainbow wrasse, saupe, goatfish, scorpion fish and even a seahorse or two! Continuing along, we find another cave at 25 meters which is much larger entrance than the “bell” and is the point to turn back.

When ending either dive, you can go on the shelf at 9 meters on either side of the bay and keep an eye out for octopus and small but very brightly colored fish. You can exit the water at the ladder at the right hand side of the bay. One word of warning: check whether the ladder is still there before entering the water, as this ladder is liable to come off in bad weather. If the ladder is not there, allow to have extra air so that you can go further into the bay to the slipway to exit from there. Beware of boat traffic on the surface.

Open water divers and Advanced Open water divers are all welcome here