Shaab Claudia

The descent goes straight to the reef wall and not to the sand floor, because the cavern entrances sit at 7 and 8 m, behind corals just below a prominent dent in the reef flat as seen from the boat. Inside, two main chambers are joined by small channels and swim-throughs, and holes in the roof send the sun down through them. The caves are wide and branch little, with five entrances and exits between 5 and 10 m. The suggested exit is the western one at 4 m, hidden behind corals. From there the route swings north around large boulder corals to a second, smaller cavern whose entrance, also at 4 m, is easy to miss. The coral garden along the west side follows, with the reef on your right shoulder, and it opens into the channel between the reef blocks. Overhanging coral walls hold groupers, an anemone colony sits on the right-hand wall at 10 m, and two pinnacles rise to 6 m at the eastern end. Only the southern reef is dived, and only in daylight. Reported maximum depth is 20 m or 25 m depending on the operator, but the route itself stays within 15 m.

A cavern within Open Water depths, with daylight dropping in through the roof, is the draw. The chambers are closed on top apart from those holes, so shafts of sun cut through the water inside, which suits photography. The dive does not stop at the caves: the coral garden and the pinnacle channel give it a second landscape, and the anemone colony at 10 m beside the pinnacles is where the channel gets its colour.

Boats crowd the site. Many stop at Shaab Claudia, and the chambers can fill with several groups at once, so expect to queue in the narrow channels and keep your spacing. The chambers are an overhead environment and are dived with a guide; Open Water is our working minimum for the site, not a reason to go in unguided. Buoyancy is the skill that matters: hover and keep off the coral. Current shows up at one spot only, the passage that splits this reef from its neighbour, so keep the reef close there.