Cap Est Reef

The easternmost tip of Sainte-Marie is battered by the open Indian Ocean swell, and that exposure has built a truly pristine hard-coral garden seldom dived by outsiders. Staghorn and table corals spread across plateaus between 8 and 22 metres, with schooling fusiliers wheeling overhead and big Napoleon wrasse drifting through at their own pace. The visibility regularly exceeds 25 metres in the dry-season months when the trade wind keeps the water glassy.