Pota del Llop

The rock formation named for the wolf's paw silhouette above the waterline sits on Meda Gran's north-east tip, and the dive it gives is the deepest in the reserve. The descent lands on a gorgonian-carpeted wall from around 20 m, with red Paramuricea clavata across the face and the upper ledges offering a macro stop for nudibranchs on cooler stretches. The route runs the wall. Past 25 m the gorgonian cover thickens, large fans described by local centres as stretching as far as you can see. The wall keeps going past 40 m. At the deepest point a small cave opens, and from inside a short chimney rises back up the rock — the structural feature that separates this dive from Pedra de Déu next door. A torch brings the cave to life and marks the natural turning point for the profile. The return climbs the wall. Because the site sees far fewer dives per season than the south-facing Medes points, groupers and octopuses tend to hold their ground rather than retreating into crevices, and dentex pass on hunting runs without the reflex flight that crowds produce.

Three things set Pota del Llop apart from the rest of the Medes wall sites. Depth is the first: the wall here drops to a sand base around 50 m, and local centres explicitly flag it as the deepest point in the reserve — territory where the bottom sits well past recreational planning depth. The cave-and-chimney is the second: Pedra de Déu has denser gorgonian canyons, Carall Bernat has the open-water pinnacle and the grouper clusters, Pota del Llop has the overhead feature. The third is traffic. North-east exposure closes the site routinely, and the lower dive frequency changes the wildlife dynamic. A Spanish diver's 2012 account of using this wall to push a backup regulator to 50 m captures the site's character: experienced local divers choose it not for ease but for depth, challenge, and the kind of encounter that comes when fish aren't used to being visited every morning.

Conditions decide whether the dive happens, and they decide it late. Build flexibility into any Pota del Llop booking — centres swap to a sheltered Medes alternative when north or east wind builds, sometimes on the morning itself. Set a maximum depth on the boat, not at the wall. The base at 50 m is beyond recreational limits and the gorgonian slope is easy to follow past the turn. Run EAN32 below 25 m. The cave-and-chimney is a structural feature, not a penetration dive, but it is still overhead; carry a torch and approach it only with a buddy who is on the same plan. The upper wall is the macro stop on the way back up. Reserve rules apply in full: 5.30 EUR per-person fee per dive, daily quota enforced, mandatory eco-briefing, no feeding or touching, 1.5 m minimum standoff from walls and bottom, and night diving prohibited throughout the reserve.