Salpatxot

The mooring drops you onto a gentle slope on the north face of Meda Gran, where large rock blocks draped in gorgonians step down from around 5 meters into a Posidonia oceanica meadow below. The Salpatxot rock serves as the central reference point, and the dive flows naturally between the blocks, where groupers materialise in the gaps and scorpionfish flatten themselves against the stone. Schools of sea bream drift alongside throughout, and barracuda may cut through without warning. The route finishes in the Posidonia meadow itself — softer light, swaying grass, crustaceans picking through the sediment. It is a dive that rewards a slow pace and a close eye rather than a wide lens pointed into the blue.

Salpatxot is the quiet side of the Illes Medes. While the archipelago's reputation rests on dramatic walls, tunnels, and deep pinnacles, this site offers something the others do not: a Posidonia oceanica meadow hosting the critically endangered Pinna Nobilis fan mussel. This large bivalve — once common across the Mediterranean — has been devastated by a parasitic infection (Haplosporidium pinnae) since 2016, and populations have collapsed throughout its range. Encountering one at Salpatxot is a genuine conservation moment, not a routine sighting. The site's north-facing position also makes it a practical asset — when south winds churn the iconic sites on the exposed side of the islands, Salpatxot stays diveable. Multiple L'Estartit dive centres describe it as their go-to photography site: manageable depths, abundant life, and enough light reaching the slope to shoot without strobes.

Despite its easy reputation, Salpatxot has currents. Xaloc Diving Center specifically warns divers to listen carefully to the on-board briefing, and this applies regardless of experience level. The site is sheltered from surface chop but not from subsurface flow. Bring a camera — the combination of shallow depths, dense marine life, and good ambient light makes this one of the stronger underwater photography dives in the Medes. Nitrox is optional at these depths but extends bottom time if you want to linger in the Posidonia zone.