Gozo is the perfect dive destination for anyone who is looking for a relaxed holiday filled with caverns, wrecks, and colorful reefs. The environment is extremely welcoming to beginners with its clear and warm water. However, as it turns out, Gozo is also extremely welcoming to technical divers with its abundant wrecks, caverns, and easily accessible depth. On top of that, the diving community is very knowledgeable about technical diving in Gozo, with most dive centers being able to provide guided technical dives (or a technical course). If you’re interested in technical diving, or if you’re already a technical diver, here are some of the most famou and interesting dive sites for technical diving in Gozo:
Dwejra – Blue Hole and Inland Sea
One of the most popular dive sites (if not the most popular) is certainly the Blue Hole, situated on the west coast of Gozo, in the small village of Dwejra. The Blue Hole, on top of being very photogenic from the surface, offers a rich and varied underwater scenery. The Blue Hole itself is only about 15 meters deep, but once you descend, you’ll find an Arch opening out to the outer ocean, where the possibilities are endless: if you swim straight out for 2 minutes, you’ll encounter the imposing remnants of the Azure Window, whose tip peaks at a depth of around 6 meters, but the bottom can reach depth exceeding 40 meters. If you decide to do a tech dive in the Blue Hole, you’ll get to explore many of the swim-throughs between 40 and 25 meters created by the ruins of the azure window. If you decide to venture on the left side, you’ll find the Coral Cave – A cavern (yes, it’s a cavern despite its name) which is around 30 meters wide and 15 meters tall- filled with peculiar life forms; swimming back from Coral Cave to Blue Hole, you’ll be able to reach depths exceeding 40 meters, making it perfect for a technical dive. For the decompression, there are many shallower ledges, either directly on the azure window ruins, or in a shallow pool, called Coral Garden, which lets us avoid decompressing in the blue!
The second famous dive spot you’ll find in Dwejra is Inland Sea. From the surface, Inland Sea is a small opening in the cliff connecting an inner body of water to the outer ocean, but underneath, it opens up to a wonderful hall of rocks and light: the tunnel itself has a maximum depth of about 25 meters, but once you’re on the side of the ocean, you can easily get to depth of up to 60 meters, making it perfect for advanced technical dives. Once you’re out of the tunnel, you have two options: you can either follow the wall on the left, which will lead you to the blue hole after around 30 minutes of swimming, or you can turn left, which has caves (though you’ll only get to them after about 45 minutes of swimming). As it is mainly a wall dive outside of the tunnel, you have a lot of freedom as to which depth you want to go to: You can go down to 50 meters and plan a technical dive, the same way you can stay at a depth of 18 meters if you have an open-water diver in your group! Inland Sea is a good dive site to use DPVs.
Due to the difficulty of Blue Hole’s entry, and because technical diving requires more cylinder (which are harder to carry), a lot of divers doing technical dives choose to enter from Inland Sea and swim all the way to Blue Hole.
Xatt-L-Ahmar – The wrecks
Xatt-L-Ahmar is situated on the south coast of the island. From the shore, you’ll be able to see the island of Comino and the Cirkewwa pier in Malta. Xatt-L-Ahmar was also known as the three wrecks, due to the 3 wrecks which were scuttled for divers: The MV Xlendi, MV Karwela, and the MV Cominoland. The reason I say was known is because, as of 2022, a fourth wreck has been scuttled: the MT Hephaestus. The first three wrecks are lying at a maximum depth of approximately 40 meters, making them a perfect fit for technical dives; the newer one is even deeper, at a maximum depth of about 45 meters, making it accessible only to technical divers. The wrecks are a great spot for technical diving: a lot of recreational divers dive them, but having to respect no-decompression limits significantly restricts the maximum bottom time, given that they are rather deep. For decompression, the wrecks are perfect as they are all about 1-2 minutes away from the reef wall. The reef sits at a depth ranging from 12 meters up to 6 meters, making it perfect to pass your deco stops.
The MV Karwela is probably the most famous out of the 4 wrecks: sunk in 2006, this wreck is especially famous for its photogenic staircase! The deck is also built out of wood, which makes it all the more magical!
The MV Cominoland was sunk on the exact same day as the MV Karwela, about 30 meters away from it. It is a bit smaller, but it is still a very interesting wreck to explore. In the bow, you’ll find the winch used to lower naval mines back when the MV Cominoland was still operating as a minelayer.
The MV Xlendi was the first wreck scuttled off the coast of Xatt-L-Ahmar in 1999. This 80-meter-long ferry is the largest wreck in Gozo, but sadly, due to an error during the scuttling operation, the ship turned itself upside-down and is now unfit for penetration, due to the falling debris and the confusing upside-down environment. Nevertheless, it is still very impressive to swim above it.
The MT Hephaestus is the most recent wreck: sunk in 2022, this Togolese oil Tanker is a bit of swimming away from shore (around 15 minutes) and is at a maximum depth of 45 meters. The engine room is the highlight of the dive, situated at the far end of the ship.
If you are planning to have a longer decompression dive, it is entirely possible to explore multiple wrecks on the same dive, thanks to their proximity.
The North Coast
The North Coast of Gozo spans around 5 kilometers and is home to some of the most scenic cliffs you can visit. However, as a diver, you’ll get to explore those cliffs underwater as well: as it turns out, they keep going underwater, and can sometimes reach vertical depths of up to 60 meters. Along this coast, there are more than a dozen dive sites: some of them shallower (such as Xwejni Bay, which is perfect for trydives!), and some of them deeper (such as Billingshurst Cave). The deeper dives can all be done as technical dives if you wish to extend your bottom time. Amongst the deeper dives, there are some even deeper which can only be accessed by “extending your range”. Let’s have a look at some of the most popular dives sites the North coast has to offer:
Double Arch is probably one of the easiest technical dives to do due to the easy entry. It starts in a shallow bay where it is easy to set up all the necessary stages, DPVs, etc… although one caveat of this dive is the long swim time – it takes around 20 to 25 minutes to get to the actual Arch. Once you get there, you’ll see that it isn’t called double arch for nothing: the rock formation literally looks like an arch stacked on top of another Arch, with the lower arch being at a depth of 35 meters. This dive can also be done recreationally, but if you decide to do a technical dive, you’ll have the option of following the wall on the right and swimming for a bit more until you reach triple arch.
Reqqa Point is the Northernmost point on the Island. When done recreationally, you’ll follow the wall until you hit a plateau at a depth of 15 meters: from this plateau, you’ll be able to see the vast, never-ending ocean, with depth reaching 50 meters astonishingly quickly. On a technical dive, you can actually go to there, and look for interesting wildlife: sometimes you’ll see a Giant grouper hanging around, and if you’re really lucky, you’ll be able to spot a Moonfish!
Billinghurst Cave is a large linear cave that starts at a depth of 20m and descends to a maximum depth of 25m. It is about 100 meters long: although it is linear and the exit light is visible from pretty far in, the linear distance, coupled with the depth, makes the far back suitable only for technical divers.
The Bottleneck is one of the most challenging dives there is to do in Gozo: the entry is the same as for Reqqa point, you’ll have to locate a small opening in a rockfall at a depth of 37 meters. Once you locate that entry, squeeze yourself through it, and you’ll be welcomed by a giant hall dropping down to about 55 meters with shrimps living on the walls by the thousands. You can then exit the hall further down at a depth of 60 meters. Due to the depth, squeeze to enter, and overhead nature of the dive, it is only suitable for experienced tec divers, but is one of the most rewarding dives to complete.
