Eel Garden

The walk in crosses the reef plate to the entry, a nine-metre canyon cut through the reef. The channel runs fifteen metres and is a good stretch of the dive in its own right — on some days it holds schools of colourful glassfish — before it opens out onto the reef beyond. It is also the reference point for the way back, so it is worth a look over your shoulder on the way out.

Past the channel the reef flattens into a nearly level section with coral boulders and several table corals, at between 18 and 20 metres, the deepest part of the dive. The garden eels are on the sand alongside it. They live in permanent tubular burrows and stand upright out of them, heads bent into the current, picking at passing food, and the site is named for how many of them there are.

A thick congregation of barracuda patrols the area regularly, and the smaller finds are the other reason to dive here — the rare sea grass ghost pipefish among them. The one condition that matters is wind: Eel Garden is only dived in non-windy weather, because surface and underwater currents here can be strong, and centres move the day's diving to another entry rather than push it.