The dive site gets its name from the numerous ledges and cracks in the reef. The reef is composed mainly of hard corals including brain coral, starlet coral, smooth star coral and fragile saucer coral.
The ledge shelters green morays, hawksbill turtles and nurse sharks. Also look for the ever present large barracudas hovering in mid-water, hiding beneath the overhangs or following divers around.
Englishman’s Bay is hidden from the road by a thick cover of bush. This spectacular beach with powdery light sand leads to the deep, calm water of the sheltered bay and is one of the loveliest beaches in Tobago. It is utterly ravishing and virtually undeveloped.
From Fort King is one of Tobago’s best preserved historical sites. It was built by the British in the 1700s when it was also captured and occupied by the French and renamed Fort Castries.
The road leading up to the Fort, passes by Tobago’s only Hospital, leading up to the top of the hill where the Fort is located. The views from the Fort provide the visitor with spectacular views over Scarborough and further north along the coastline.
The Maverick was originally called Scarlet Ibis and was previously a passenger, vehicle and cargo ferry that travelled between Trinidad and Tobago. Scarlet Ibis went into service in 1959 and was retired in 1975.
On April 7, 1997 it was scuttled by the Association of Tobago Dive Operators and now sits upright on a sandy sea bed at a depth of 30m. Before scuttling, the ship was thoroughly cleaned of oil and other pollutants, hatches and other entrapments were either removed or secured making all compartments of the ship completely accessible.
The hull and exposed decks are encrusted with red polyp octorals, tunicates, sponges and literally thousands of Atlantic thorny oysters.
Grafton beach is located in Stonehaven bay and is an attractive coarse sand beach.
Stonehaven bay is one of the three places in Tobago where the endangered giant leatherback turtle comes ashore between March and June to lay their eggs which will hatch around three months later.
Mount Irvine Wall is located just 3 minutes from Mount Irvine Beach facilities by boat. This wall dive has a maximum depth of 15 m and is actually a group of rocky outcroppings extending out to sea.
It is considered an easy dive, suitable for beginners, but also good for all levels as there are plenty of smaller, interesting creatures such as scorpion fish, juvenile spotted drums, lobsters, octopus, queen angel fish, frogfish, parrot fish, pipe fish, batfish and seahorses.
The coral covering the wall is composed mainly of small yellow tube sponges, branching vase sponges, black ball sponges, encrusting gorgonians, small black sea rods, porous sea rods, stinging bush hydroids and large quantities of social feather dusters.
The Little Rockley Bay is a long stretch of darkish volcanic sand fringed by coconut trees and bordered by the old coast road which is now bypassed by the Claude Noel Highway between Scarborough and Crown Point.
The eastern section of the bay, adjacent to Rockley Bay and alongside Lambeau - where I was staying during my time on Tobago- is protected by a reef and provides good swimming.
Further down towards Crown Point, Little Rockley Bay beach is exposed to the full force of the Atlantic Ocean and the trade winds. The pounding surf means that the beach remains largely empty but it is arguably the best walking and jogging beach in Tobago. I went jogging there almost every morning during my stay.
The Tobago Forest Reserve located in the central ranges is the oldest protected rainforest in the western hemisphere. Thanks to the British scientist Stephen Hales, on April 13, 1776, 14’000 acres of central Tobago were designated a protected Crown Reserve.
Hales began researching the relationship between rainfall and trees during the plantation era. He needed 10 years to convince Tobago’s planters that if they continued to cut down the forest, the island would soon be incapable of supporting any plantations.
A rainforest trip is a must for every Tobago visitor. Make sure to hire a guide, as you’ll see a lot more and will get interesting information about the flora and fauna. I can really recommend our guide, Peter Cox.
Dutchman’s Reef is easily accessed from either the shore at Mount Irvine beach or from a boat. Along the reef’s edge, you can see two very old cannons that were once part of the Dutch East India Company fleet that ran aground in the 17th century. They can be difficult to recognise because of heavy coral encrustation.
If you are very lucky, you can see hawksbill turtles which normally feed on the smaller barrel sponges. I saw two of them while diving at Dutchman’s Reef, but they were way too fast to photograph them. When you see how sedate they are ashore, you would never guess how spry they are under water.
Two pictures from my trip to Tobago in February and March 2006:
The Sisters lie about a mile off Bloody Bay on the Carribean coast of Tobago. Underwater these rocky outcrops plunge to over 40 metres and periodically attract some exciting species such as scalloped hammerhead sharks. Unfortunately I didn’t have the opportunity to dive there.
View from Fort Bennet down to the rocks which gave the beautiful village of Black Rock on Tobago its name.
Pigeon Point is Tobago’s most famous beach and the scenery is smashing indeed. The beach can boast of powdery white sand and leaning coconut palms.
But as beautiful Pigeon Point is, it is also one of the few places on Tobago to suffer from development and commercialization. It was the first beach to charge an entry fee, and regularly increases rents for beach vendors. Pigeon Point tends to be very crowded, especially if there is a cruise liner in the port of Scarborough.
Close-up of a star coral (Montastrea) at Flying Reef, one of the greatest dive sites in Tobago.
The Batteaux Bay is a small secluded beach in the grounds of the Blue Waters Inn in Speyside, Tobago. From Battaeux Bay you have a very nice view of Goat Island and Little Tobago.
The triple-tiered Argyle Falls are on the Argyle River, just west of Roxborough on the southeastern coast of Tobago. It’s a really nice place to chill after an exhausting rain forest tour. Those pictures where taken by me in February 2006.
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