The Cathedral

The Cathedral is Osprey Reef's most dramatic topographic feature: a series of towering coral pinnacles that rise from the lagoon floor to within metres of the surface, creating soaring columns of reef that divers can circumnavigate through shafts of filtered tropical light. The structure's scale and symmetry gives the site its name — floating between the spires with eagle rays cruising overhead produces a sensation of hovering in the nave of a vast underwater church. Soft corals in purple, orange, and pink drape every surface, and the sheltered lagoon position means conditions are calmer here than at the exposed outer walls.