Grotta delle Cipree

A magical dive visiting a large air bubble and a beach of volcanic sand and cowrie shells.

On the southern side of the island of Ustica, near Punta Gavazzi, is this marvelous cave, characterized by its gigantic air bubble and its internal beach made of cowrie shells.

Mooring is close to the coast, our dive begins with a descent following the gentle slope down to a depth of about 19 m. Here the wide entrance of the cave appears. The bottom of the cave is initially sandy and slowly rises before becoming rocky slabs. Being poorly lit, marine life inside the cave is scarce, but along the walls and ceiling various types of crabs, mechanical shrimp and parapandalo shrimp can be observed. Towards the back end of the cave, the seabed rises quickly and leads us right to the air bubble where we can resurface. With positive buoyancy, we can swim towards the center of the large chamber while admiring the high ceiling above us, decorated with stalactites and tree roots poking through the ground above. At the back of this large chamber there’s a small beach of black sand with cowrie shells.

After visiting the air bubble, through a second passage we head towards the exit, we stop for a few minutes to admire the surprising play of light and emerald blue colors looking towards the cave exit.

At the cave exit we find a posidonia meadow and the rocky reef; a perfect ending with a few more minutes of exploration, where we can usually admire scorpionfish, gilt-head bream, colorful fish dancing among the posidonia and nudibranchs.