A low, crocodile shaped rock sitting offshore between Dwejra Point and Fungus Rock, with a shallow plateau on top, a natural amphitheatre carved into one side and a sheer wall that keeps going well past forty metres.
WallSea conditions
Stay dry right now
Sea is up (4.2 m WNW) · Fresh WNW wind (42 km/h) · Gusts to 62 km/h
Done for today. Tomorrow: not looking good. Best it gets is 6 at 17:00: Sea is up (1.8 m WNW)
Forecast for the site, updated 19:45 · Models disagree
Measured at Mġarr, Gozo (13.6 km away, 20:29): 36 km/h from WNW, gusts 41. The next hours lean on it.
- Waves
- 4.2 m
- from WNW, biggest 8.5
- Wind
- 42 km/h
- WNW, gusts 62
- Swell
- 0.4 m
- 10 s period
- Sea temp
- 22 °C
- air 19 °C
Hour by hour
Next 7 days
0 4.2 m60 WNW
0 4.0 m54 WNW
25 1.1 m19 W
81 0.4 m17 ESE
92 0.4 m16 E
74 0.4 m23 NE
76 0.4 m21 ESE
Sunrise 06:26, sunset 17:06
Waves: Copernicus Med-Waves 4 km + MFWAM 8 km + EWAM 5 km + ECMWF WAM 9 km. Wind: ICON-2I 2 km + ECMWF IFS 9 km + ICON-EU 7 km + UKMO 10 km + ARPEGE 11 km. Read a few km out on the side the site is open to, then blended.
Exposed to wind and swell from: W (270°), NW (315°), SW (225°), S (180°), N (0°). An offshore rock on the open western side of Gozo, so it is a settled weather dive only and the outer face can be lumpy even on a decent day. Best in the morning before the sea breeze fills in. Clear water is almost guaranteed, which is both the attraction and the trap. Best season: June to October.
The dive
It earns its name from the profile above water, a long flat snout lying in the sea about a hundred and fifty metres off the headland. The boat anchors on a shallow plateau that sits between roughly four and twelve metres, which is where the dive starts and where it finishes.
On the southern side the rock is cut into what divers call the amphitheatre, a square notch with near vertical sides dropping to about eighteen metres and stuffed with life. That is the easy way down. On the seaward side the ground simply falls off a cliff, a sheer drop from around eight metres to forty and then deeper still, past fifty and on towards sixty five in places.
Because the rock stands out in open water, it sees pelagic traffic that the sheltered inshore sites do not. Amberjack, bonito, dentex and barracuda come through, tuna are possible, and the wall itself carries groupers, eels and octopus in the cracks with sponges and coralites over everything. The usual route is a lap of the rock, anticlockwise, with the depth chosen to suit training and gas.
The visibility works against you here. It is so good that forty metres does not look like forty metres, and people quietly run up decompression they did not plan for.
- Sheer wall from eight metres down past forty on the seaward side
- The amphitheatre notch, a gentler eighteen metre descent packed with life
- Best chance on this coast of running into amberjack, bonito and barracuda
- Shallow plateau on top for a relaxed, colourful decompression
- Offshore setting between Dwejra Point and Fungus Rock
Typical plan
Off the boat onto the plateau, drop through the amphitheatre or over the eastern edge, then circle the rock anticlockwise at a depth matched to your training, typically thirty to forty metres for advanced divers and eighteen to twenty five for everyone else. Keep an eye out into the blue, turn on gas rather than on time, and come back up onto the plateau to finish shallow. Nitrox or trimix depending on the plan, a torch for the wall cracks, and a delayed surface marker is not optional out here.
What the bottom looks like
- 1Shallow plateau where the boat anchors7 m deep · 15 m out · under the boat
- 2The amphitheatre, a notch cut into the southern side18 m deep · 45 m out · 30 m from the boat
- 3Edge of the sheer drop on the seaward face24 m deep · 60 m out · 45 m from the boat
- 4Vertical wall with sponges and false coral36 m deep · 85 m out · 70 m from the boat
- 5Small coral filled cave sections in the wall44 m deep · 110 m out · 95 m from the boat
- 6Deep ground towards Fungus Rock62 m deep · 195 m out · 180 m from the boat
Bare limestone plateau on top, sheer rock faces below, with boulders and coarse debris collecting at the foot of the wall.
Who you might meet
Often
Sometimes
Marked ones can hurt you. What they do and what to do about it is under Getting in and staying safe.
Getting in and staying safe
Realistically a boat dive, about ten minutes in a fast boat from Xlendi Bay, with the skipper anchoring on the shallow plateau. A handful of very fit, very committed divers do it as a shore dive from Dwejra with a long surface swim, but that leaves you a very long way from an exit if anything goes wrong. There is nothing at the rock itself, so eat, drink and use the toilet before you leave the harbour.
- Genuinely deep, the wall passes forty metres and keeps going
- Exceptional visibility makes depth hard to judge, watch the computer not the view
- Choppy water, surge and slight currents along the outer wall
- Exposed offshore position with no shelter and no shore exit
- Boat traffic and other dive boats around the plateau
- Narrow passages in the small cave sections can get tight
- Decompression obligation and gas planning on a site with a surface swim to nowhere
Marine life to respect
Mediterranean moray · Morina Can hurt you
Bites hard if a hand goes into its hole. Keep hands out of cracks and never feed one.
A bit of history
The rock stands between Dwejra Point and Fungus Rock, the sea stack the Knights of St John called Il-Ġebla tal-Ġeneral and guarded fiercely, because the rare parasitic plant growing on its top was believed to be a powerful medicine. Dwejra Tower, the 17th century watchtower built by the Order, overlooks the whole scene from the shore. Like everything else here, the rock is a remnant of Lower Coralline Limestone left behind as the cliff line retreated.
Divers say
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Further reading: Gozo Dive, Crocodile Rock · Calypso Sub Aqua Club, Crocodile Rock · Atlantis Gozo, Crocodile Rock · Wikipedia, Dwejra Bay and Fungus Rock