Smurf City and the
Spelonk drift dives
Smurf
City is named for its stunning coral garden. It is made up
of huge brain and star coral formations all packed very
close together and situated on a rolling hill. Like a
village of large mushrooms on a hill.
As part of a drift dive it is a breathtaking view when you
approach this garden of coral. It is home to many large
Spiny Lobsters as well as a lot of fish life. Being in the
Spelonk area the drop offs are steep macro algae covered
walls ending on a large sand plateau. The coral formations
are in separate gardens at the bottom of the walls between
60 and 100 feet. Between each coral garden you generally
find a rock covered bottom with many Giant Barrel Sponges
and the occasional huge boulder that broke off the shore
line above. Or find yourself drifting along one of the walls
checking holes and cracks until we get to the next coral
garden.
It is possible to make several different drift dives in the
Spelonk area.
Doing drift dives in this area you will see breathtaking
coral formations, spacious views of steep drop offs, really
big Giant Barrel Sponges, big Lobsters and many unusual
species of fish like Queen Trigger, Ocean Trigger, High
Hats, large Grouper, Mutton Hamlet and Hog Fish.
All entries are a giant stride, 2 feet for the lowest and
about 15 feet for the highest. We lower camera’s down by
rope. Exit is either inside the boka or at another point
along the shore line where it is possible to climb out and
retrieve the gear with a rope. Although this sounds really
wild and crazy it is actually very easy to do. Not any more
difficult than climbing out the swimming pool without use of
the ladder.
Because most of the dive time is spent at or around 60ft.
you must have Nitrox for this dive. A full wetsuit and good
booties are recommended.
