Dofí Nord

A buoyed mooring on the north face of Meda Petita and a wall drop to roughly 18-20 metres puts you at the long-tunnel entry. Both walls at the mouth are covered with large gorgonians. Inside, the light drops to torch-only. The passage runs through the islet to a south-face exit at about 25 metres, with red coral, bryozoans and gorgonian growth on the walls where the rock is exposed. Tunnel-length figures vary across centre catalogues between 65 and 90 metres, likely measuring different endpoints rather than describing different tunnels.

Open Water divers skip the long tunnel and enter the short Túnel del Dofí higher up. That passage is around 30 metres long, wider, and naturally lit through fissures in the calcareous ceiling — the trademark light-shaft photo opportunity. Inside, divers can surface in the air chamber at about 10 metres, take the regulator off, and continue. The dolphin statue sits at the southern exit at around 12 metres as the orientation marker for the route.

A third option drops the cavern system entirely and follows the L'Herminia route along an irregular rocky bottom for a non-overhead dive. Centres pick which of the three lines to run on the day based on certification mix and conditions. The closing minutes are usually back on the outer wall and across the 12 metre red coral colony before the safety stop. Summer conditions in 2024 trip reports describe roughly 9-12 metre visibility with surface temperatures near 24°C and a thermocline taking the bottom toward 17°C below 15-18 metres.

Several Medes sites have walls and groupers. Dofí Nord earns its slot in nearly every centre's rotation because it offers genuine route flexibility on a single mooring. Open Water divers can stay shallow on the air chamber and short tunnel line. Advanced divers can take the long tunnel through to the south face at about 25 metres. Photographers can park under a ceiling fissure and shoot light shafts. Three plausible profiles share one site and one boat slot, which is why centres rationing permits across a small daily quota repeatedly send mixed groups here.

The other site-specific draw is the red coral wall at around 12 metres on the outer faces. The colony is one of the most abundant in the Illes Medes and is widely flagged in centre briefings as the area's most remarkable shallow feature. Red coral elsewhere on the archipelago tends to sit deeper, so getting it shallow keeps the colour signal intact for OW-level divers. The dolphin statue at the southern exit is a landmark, not a destination — useful as an orientation marker and a photographic anchor.

Wide-angle work fits the trademark image: backlit silhouettes under the ceiling fissures of the short Túnel del Dofí, with sun shafts cutting onto the dark interior walls. Time the dive for high midday sun in summer to push the contrast between the lit ceiling holes and the shadowed cavern. The 12 metre red coral wall on the outer face is the close-up subject divers pair with the cavern shots. The long-tunnel entry on the north side is the place for the gorgonian-fan composition, with both walls densely covered. Inside the long passage the light drops fast, so a steady torch or off-camera strobe earns its keep on the coralligenous wall.

Buoyancy is the load-bearing skill. Silt rises fast under cavern ceilings, and exhaled air collects against the rock and damages the encrusting life over time. Hover mid-water, stay off low ceilings, and do not pause directly under fragile sections. Carry one torch at minimum and a backup if you commit to the long tunnel. EAN32 is the standard recommendation for the deeper line where the south-face exit at 25 metres eats into no-decompression time. Centre briefings flag the cavern environment as fragile and call out macro-bubble accumulation on the ceiling as something to actively minimise. Try dives and OW practical training are not permitted inside the reserve, so beginner sessions run on the Montgrí coast rather than at Dofí Nord.