Hole in the Wall

Hole in the Wall is a shore dive in the Arinaga area of the El Cabrón Marine Reserve on the east coast of Gran Canaria. It is the most spectacular and most challenging of the dives there, and it can only be attempted when the winds and currents are favourable. It is rated advanced, with a maximum depth of 22 m, a rock bottom, medium current and good visibility.

Entry and route start from a shelf into a V-shaped channel about 5 m deep. You descend to 14 m by swimming down through the hole and out through the cave that gives the site its name. A slope then runs down for about 25 m to a large archway filled with trumpetfish and bream, and continues to the 22 m maximum.

Marine life is the main draw. About 100 m further on is a ball of around two thousand bastard grunts, known locally as roncadores, with a school of striped bream and barracuda up to 1.2 m long. Eagle rays, morays, marbled electric rays, common stingrays and the occasional angel shark are likely, along with grouper and nudibranchs. Look for trumpetfish, forkbeards, butterfly rays and big shoals of fish, and for garrick harassing the roncadores or bull rays and long-tailed rays passing.