Golfe de Valinco · France · Reef
Tour de la Calanca
A 10 m rocky reef under a Genoese watchtower
Area photo: Valinco Drone · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tour de la Calanca is a rocky reef in the immediate vicinity of the Genoese tower it is named after, on the north shore of the gulf. It runs to 10 m at its deepest and Propriano Plongée calls it their favourite site. Large octopus, castagnole, sar and oblade are on the rock, with stingray and flatfish out on the sand between the boulders.
Where it is and how deep
41.6889° N, 8.8904° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The boat runs across to the tower and you drop onto the reef beside it. Nothing here is deeper than 10 m, so the dive is long and slow: a pass along the rock, in and out of the boulders, with enough gas and no-decompression time left to go back over anything you want a second look at.
The rock holds large octopus, and castagnole, sar and oblade move over it in numbers. On the sand between the boulders, stingray and flatfish lie half buried — worth scanning the open patches rather than swimming across them. Propriano Plongée is listed as the centre that dives the site, and the Scubago entry calls it that centre's favourite.
Background
The site is named for the Genoese watchtower on the shore above it. The French Wikipedia entry for Olmeto, the commune this stretch of coast belongs to, lists the structure as "un poste d'observation dit tour génoise de Calanca" — an observation post among the commune's monuments. The Scubago entry places the dive site in the immediate vicinity of the tower.
Marine life and season
- Octopus & cuttlefish
- Stingrays
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Off-season | Off-season | Off-season | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Off-season |
Season follows Golfe de Valinco: Both centres run April to November and close for the winter; the water is 18 °C at the edges of that season and 23 °C at its height.
Sources
- Tour de la Calanca — Scubago (SSI)
- Olmeto — Wikipedia (fr)
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Rock spires off a 45 m plateau, the tallest topping out at 9 m
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Rock towers rising from 50 m to 6 m below the surface
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