Ħondoq Bay · Gozo

Ħondoq Reef

The rocky ground on the eastern side of Ħondoq bay, where boulders and low arches break up the seagrass and a water pipeline heads off toward Comino. Twelve metres at its deepest and endlessly rummageable.

Open Water🪸 Reef5 to 15 mShore access: easyPopularity: lowAlso called Hondoq Reef, Ħondoq ir-Rummien reef

Plan this dive

Sea conditions

Excellent right now

Flat, sheltered and calm

Forecast for the site, updated 01:45 AM

Waves: 0.3 m; from SE
Wind: n/a
Swell: 0.3 m; 5 s period
Sea temp: 29 °C

Next 7 days

Today🌤️98 0.5 m
0 N

Sat🌤️100 0.4 m
0 N

Sun🌤️98 0.3 m
0 N

Mon🌤️100 0.2 m
0 N

Tue🌤️100 0.4 m
0 N

Wed🌤️53 0.7 m
0 N

Thu🌤️56 0.7 m
0 N

Exposed to wind and swell from: E (90°), SE (135°), NE (45°). Well sheltered from the prevailing northwesterly, which is why it is the first choice when the rest of the island is blown out. An easterly or northeasterly puts chop straight into the bay and stirs the shallows. Best season: Diveable year round. Best from May to November; the water is warmest in September and the visibility is often at its best then too..

The dive

Ħondoq Reef is the bit that stops Ħondoq being just a training bay. Swim east out of the beach, over sand and then over Posidonia, and the ground starts to buckle into low rock: boulders leaning on each other, short swim-throughs, small arches and overhangs at eight or nine metres. None of it is deep, none of it is difficult, and all of it is exactly the right scale for a slow, curious dive with a macro lens.

The sand and the seagrass edge are where the interesting things live. Flying gurnards walk about on their modified fins and then unfold those extraordinary blue wings when you push too close. Lizardfish sit like small ambushes on the open sand. There are stingrays here, often small ones, and cuttlefish in spring. Between the rocks, expect the usual shoals of bream, salema and wrasse, and octopus in most of the holes worth checking.

The pipeline that carries water across toward Comino runs through the site and has quietly become a reef in its own right, with growth along its length and fish hanging off it in the way fish always do around a straight line on a sandy bottom. Come back after dark and the whole place changes character: crabs out in the open, gobies, cuttlefish hunting, shrimp eyes lighting up all over the rock. It is one of the better easy night dives on Gozo.

Arches, overhangs and swim-throughs all within 12 metres
Flying gurnards and small rays on the sand edges
A water pipeline that has turned itself into an artificial reef
One of the best easy night dives on the island
Car park, kiosk and toilets fifty metres from the water

Typical plan

Walk in off the beach or step off the slipway, swim out east on the surface for a couple of minutes, then drop and follow the seagrass edge to the reef at eight or nine metres. Work the arches and swim-throughs outbound, turn at the pipeline or at 12 metres, and come back inshore over the sand watching for gurnards. Sixty to seventy minutes on a single twelve, air is fine, and you will very likely surface with gas to spare.

What the bottom looks like

1Posidonia meadow on the way out6 m deep · 70 m out
2Low reef arch9 m deep · 120 m out
3Swim-through between leaning boulders10 m deep · 145 m out
4Broken boulder ground11 m deep · 175 m out
5Sand at the outer edge of the reef12 m deep · 210 m out
6Water pipeline running toward Comino10 m deep · 260 m out

Cartoon cross-section along the usual route from Ħondoq ir-Rummien beach and slipway, Qala. Depths are approximate.

A patchwork of Posidonia meadow, clean sand and low limestone reef with scattered boulders.

Who you might meet

Getting in and staying safe

As easy as Gozo gets. Drive down from Qala to the Ħondoq car park, which is large and free but fills in July and August, and there is a short walk to the beach. Entry is over coarse sand and shingle, or off the slipway if you would rather do a giant stride, and the exit is the same. There are toilets, a seasonal kiosk and a restaurant, and a dive centre operating right on the bay. The swim east to the reef is a couple of minutes on the surface. Parking is free but leave nothing visible in the car.

Boat traffic, especially outside the bay and around the ferry and Comino boat lanes
Swimmers and snorkellers overhead in summer
Fishing line and lost tackle snagged on the rocks
Shallow depth encourages long dives, so watch gas and cold on a second or third dive
Slippery algae on the slipway and the entry rocks
Mauve stinger jellyfish blooms in spring and early summer
Silt over the seagrass if a group has already been through

A bit of history

The bay owes its shape to quarrying. The hardstone workings above Ħondoq supplied block for the Mġarr breakwater, the Grand Harbour breakwater in Valletta and, according to local accounts, stone that went as far as Liverpool Cathedral, and the barges were loaded from here. The cart wheels that divers find on the bottom in the middle of the bay are what is left of that traffic. Ħondoq ir-Rummien translates as the pomegranate trough or hollow. The bay has spent much of the last thirty years at the centre of a long running planning fight over a proposed marina and hotel development, which local residents and environmental groups have repeatedly opposed.