Dwejra · Gozo

Coral Gardens

The shallow limestone amphitheatre just around the corner from the Blue Hole, full of fish, colour and light, and the top end of a chimney that rises out of the mid twenties.

Open Water🕳️ Cave🪸 Reef5 to 10 mShore access: mediumPopularity: highAlso called Coral Garden, Il-Ġnien tal-Qroll

Plan this dive

Sea conditions

100

Excellent right now

Flat, sheltered and calm

Forecast for the site, updated 01:33 AM

Waves: 0.3 m; from SE
Wind: 8 km/h; SSW, gusts 14
Swell: 0.2 m; 5 s period
Sea temp: 28 °C; air 27 °C

Next 7 days

Today🌦️58 0.6 m
13 SW

Sat☁️79 0.4 m
14 SSW

Sun🌦️91 0.4 m
8 ENE

Mon☁️95 0.2 m
15 NW

Tue☁️55 0.4 m
26 NW

Wed🌤️92 0.7 m
22 E

Thu🌤️100 0.6 m
10 NNE

Sunrise 06:47, sunset 19:06

Exposed to wind and swell from: W (270°), NW (315°), SW (225°). Shallow and close to the rock, so it feels the swell early even though the site itself is easy. In calm summer weather it is as benign a dive as Dwejra offers, and the light in the shallows is best in the middle of the day. Best season: May to October.

The dive

Coral Gardens is the gentle one in a neighbourhood of serious dives. A multi levelled rocky plateau sits between roughly one and ten metres, terraced and pitted, with shoals of small fish working over it and the sun doing the rest. It is where instructors take students, where guides park a group that has come up early, and where everyone ends up for a safety stop that does not feel like a chore.

It is also the exit of one of the more entertaining features on this coast. A narrow fissure in the near vertical rock, wide enough for a single diver, runs up from the low twenties to a ledge in the low teens and then opens into the shallow garden at around six metres. Divers coming back from Coral Cave or the deeper wall often finish by threading the chimney and popping out into the light.

There is a triangular hole just below the surface that photographers use for portraits, with natural light streaming through it. Between that, the fish and the easy depth, this is the site that turns a Dwejra double into a proper day rather than two serious dives back to back.

Bright, shallow, fish rich terraces that suit beginners and photographers
Chimney exit from the low twenties up into six metres of sunlight
Triangular window near the surface for portrait shots
The obvious place to finish a Blue Hole or Coral Cave dive
Shallow enough to stretch a tank a very long way

Typical plan

Enter at the Blue Hole and swim south into the gardens, or use it as the tail end of a deeper dive by coming up the chimney from the low twenties. Either way the plan is shallow and slow: potter between three and twelve metres, keep the sun behind you for photographs, and let the dive run to an hour or more. Air is fine, a standard twelve litre lasts ages at this depth, and a small torch helps pick out the colour in the overhangs.

What the bottom looks like

1Triangular hole just under the surface, a favourite for portraits2 m deep · 10 m out
2Shallow limestone amphitheatre6 m deep · 30 m out
3Ledge at the top of the chimney13 m deep · 70 m out
4Single file chimney from the low twenties up to the gardens20 m deep · 95 m out
5Wall at the foot of the chimney23 m deep · 105 m out

Cartoon cross-section along the usual route from Blue Hole, the usual entry and exit. Depths are approximate.

Terraced coralline limestone with pockets of rubble and coarse sand between the ledges.

Who you might meet

Getting in and staying safe

Usually dived as part of a Blue Hole entry, swimming south once you are out through the window. Some groups use a rocky entry directly above the gardens instead, which shortens the swim but adds another scramble over bare limestone. Either way you park near Dwejra Tower and walk out over rough rock. Toilets, showers and kiosks are down at the Inland Sea car park rather than at the entries.

Surge in the shallows whenever there is westerly swell, the water is shallow enough to push you onto rock
Sharp limestone and urchins in the shallow terraces
The chimney is single file and narrow, a bad place to have a buoyancy problem
Snorkellers and freedivers overhead in summer
The Blue Hole ladder exit in swell
Surface current along the outside of the headland