illa mateua

Park at the cove, kit up beside the car, and pick which side of the cove to start from. The depuradora route enters at the rocky outcrop near the water-treatment plant and follows the wall through narrow cavities, picking up nudibranchs, moray eels, and scorpionfish in the cracks. The island route enters from the cove side and swims out to the small rocky island, where two short tunnels cut through the rock at 6-10 m. Light a torch, take either passage, and exit the outer tunnel onto a 300-degree heading; about 75 to 100 m away, the scattered metal of the 1963 tugboat Constantin starts to show on the bottom at 5-10 m. Maximum depth across either route is around 16 m, with most of the dive happening in 6-12 m on rock and Posidonia meadow.

Most of the Costa del Montgrí dives off boats from L'Estartit. Illa Mateua is the L'Escala-side counterpart — shore entry, a permanent dive centre on the cove, and three different features stitched into one cove rather than spread across the coast: a small island, two swim-through tunnels, and a shallow wreck. The Constantin is not a structural wreck dive — there is no superstructure to circle — but as a first wreck for an Open Water diver, a 1963 debris field at 5-10 m is hard to better. The depuradora wall is what local regulars come back for: it has its own following as a night dive and a macro route, distinct enough that the same diver who praises the island for daylight will pick the depuradora when the sun goes down.

A torch matters on both sides — the tunnels are short, but detail inside them disappears without light, and the depuradora cavities reward close inspection. Run the two routes as separate dives rather than trying to chain them. Wind dictates whether the cove is workable: south winds and calm days are fine, tramontana (north) closes the entry. Cliffs around the cove have a documented rockfall risk, so don't rest directly underneath them. Parking is straightforward outside high summer; in August, arrive early or use Mateua Dive's car park. A summer boat-exclusion zone keeps powered traffic out of the cove, but ascend with an SMB regardless. No marine reserve permit applies here — that paperwork is for the Medes islands, not the coast.