Punta Salines

Two kinds of bottom share this dive. In the bay the rock slopes gently and breaks into tongues that run out into the sand, a forgiving floor that dive schools use for try-dives and courses. At the point the rock turns into a vertical wall and the dive goes deeper. A small gorgonian wall, yellow and red, grows in the coralligenous zone alongside small colonies of red coral, and large rocks full of holes shelter spiny lobsters, moray eels and octopus. Forkbeards, sargo and gilthead bream turn up along the way, with the occasional dusky grouper. One local operator advises looking overhead now and then, because shoals of fish pass above the divers.

The dive can finish through a chimney. The entrance is at about 8 m and the exit at about 3 m, and the shaft is wide enough for four divers, so the last stretch of the profile is spent in the shallows.

The bay and the wall belong to the same dive. Schools teach on the sand slope while the wall, in the same bay, gives certified divers a reason to come back, so one site serves a training group and an experienced buddy pair alike.

The chimney gives the dive its shape. It has a defined entrance at 8 m and an exit at 3 m, which turns the end of the dive into a short, shallow passage.

One local operator ranks the wall among the best Paramuricea clavata walls on the Montgrí coast.

Wind decides the day. The point is open to levante, the east wind, while garbí from the southwest leaves the site workable, so it is worth asking the centre which way the forecast is blowing.

In the chimney, treat the passage as overhead: stay inside the daylight, keep trim level so fins stay off the floor, and let the silt settle behind the group.