Cocos (Keeling) Islands · Australia · Wall · Reef
Chocolate Flow
A Montipora stand owning the wall from 16 to 35 m
Area photo: photoboothrental.com · CC BY-SA 3.0
Chocolate Flow is a wall on the western side of Horsburgh Island, named for the massive stand of Montipora coral that owns the face from 16 m down to 35 m. It carries the same coral that gives Rose Wall its name, and it is dived as a deep profile with a long, shallow finish on the reef top.
Where it is and how deep
12.0841° S, 96.8346° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The wall sits off the western side of Horsburgh Island, in the southern atoll, and it is a deep dive by the standard of the local sites. The coral stand the site is named for starts at 16 m and runs down the face to 35 m, a continuous body of Montipora holding the wall rather than scattered colonies growing on it here and there.
The profile is planned around getting back shallow again. You take the depth you came for on the face, then come up onto the reef top and off-gas there with a longer safety stop than usual, which is how the site's own listing describes diving it. There is no recompression chamber on the islands and any evacuation means a long flight, so the extra time in the shallows is worth taking.
Marine life and season
- Pristine corals
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Good |
Season follows Cocos (Keeling) Islands: Divable year-round; Apr–Jun and Oct–Nov are calmest, with the wet season from December to March bringing more wind.
Know before you go
- At 35 m this is one of the deeper dives on the atoll and the plan builds in a longer safety stop on the reef top, so treat it as a deep dive with a full off-gassing stage rather than a reef dive.
Questions divers ask
How deep is Chocolate Flow?+
The stand of Montipora coral the site is named for runs down the wall from 16 m to 35 m, so the dive is planned as a deep profile followed by a longer safety stop up on the reef top.
Sources
- Cocos (Keeling) Islands destination listing — Scubago / SSI MyDiveGuide
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