Sant Josep, Balearic Islands, Spain

Cala d Hort

Cala d Hort is the bay on the southwest coast of Ibiza opposite the dramatic 400 metre cliff of Es Vedra islet, one of the most photographed natural landmarks in the western Mediterranean. The dive sites in the bay and around Es Vedra are intermediate, with vertical walls dropping from 6 metres at the surface boulders past 30 metres on a sand and rubble bottom. The walls are dense with red gorgonia at depth, yellow encrusting anemone and red coral colonies under overhangs. Marine life is excellent for the western Balearics, with large dusky groupers approaching divers, brown meagre, schools of saddled seabream and barracuda from late summer, occasional amberjack and the persistent moray and conger eel populations of the rocky bottom. The site is moderately exposed but normally calm in summer and visibility is consistently above 25 metres. The Balearic archipelago sits in the western Mediterranean and is the only Spanish region to combine four distinct marine reserves with the largest single Posidonia oceanica meadow in the world, the UNESCO-listed prairie between Ibiza and Formentera. Water temperature ranges from 13 C in February to 26 C in August, and the islands are served by year-round dive centres in Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera.