La cova Fumada

There are two routes here and the choice is made before the water. The first stays in the 20 m zone, a large rocky scree with a lot of life in it, and it is the option that leaves gas and no-decompression time to spend on searching. Grouper and sea bass patrol the bigger blocks, moray eels and octopus take the gaps between them, and lobster, sars and drum sars work the rubble underneath.

The second route starts at the cat's eye and follows a drop-off from 20 m down to 45 m. That is the deep dive of the pair and it is short by definition, so the plan is to descend the face, take in the gorgonians and the fixed life on the way, and be back up on the shallower rock with time in hand. Barracuda and rays turn up along the wall, and sunfish sometimes appear off it in open water.

The finish is the unusual part. An air pocket runs from 14 m up to 3 m, an overhead space to be entered only with the way out in sight and with the air inside treated as unbreathable. Coming back into the light afterwards, the shallow rock is a natural place to run out the safety stop with cerianthus anemones and the last of the scree in view.