La Gerardia

The route begins in the shallows: about fifteen minutes of swimming at 5m over shoals of bogue and the small baitfish known locally as gueldes. The bottom then drops away in a progressive descent through large boulders, with life in every crevice. The boulders give way to a sand flat where yellow and red gorgonians stand, and the flat leads out to the deepest zone and the colony.

After time at the gerardia, the return climbs back gradually to 7m and finishes in the fish-rich shallows. Current can be decisive here, and the route is varied to suit it. The whole circuit takes about an hour.

The gerardia gives the dive its name and its purpose: Savalia savaglia, gold coral or false black coral, forming an enormous colony in the far reach of the route. Everything before it, the long shallow transit, the boulders and the gorgonian flat, is the approach, and the whole dive is aimed at that one colony. Up close the colony resolves into thousands of individual polyps.

Rod fishing is allowed here, so a line-cutter is mandatory against accidental entanglement. A permit is needed to drive the unpaved track to the car park, and driving it without one brings a fine.

The operator asks for advanced divers with shore-dive experience. Entry and exit are the most demanding part of the dive and must be made exactly at the planned spot. If an ascent ever has to happen anywhere else, launch a surface marker buoy before you reach the surface.