Passe de l'Ermitage

The pass runs off the end of the fringing reef, and the appeal is how much the ground changes over a short distance. The shallow end of the site is at 6 metres over sand and pebble bottom, the coral plateau picks up from there, and the deeper part of the dive works down to 25 metres. Fissures, tunnels and small caves are cut into the reef along the way, which is what gives a shallow site its shape.

It is dived as a drift, so the plan is to let the water carry you along the reef edge with the coral on one shoulder. Turtles are seen over the coral, and eagle rays and stingrays cross the open ground, so the sand patches between coral heads are worth watching as much as the reef itself. Coral fish hold on the plateau in numbers. With the shallow end at 6 metres, the last stretch of the dive can be spent on top of the reef.

Because the pass takes open-water divers and its shallow end is at 6 metres, it is one of the island's standard first dives rather than a site you work up to. That shapes the pace: the route follows the pass and the shape of the reef rather than a fixed line of features, and there is no reason to push the deep end at 25 metres when the plateau and the cut-up reef are where the dive is.