Diving at the Cousteau Reserve

As I write, it’s almost a year since we arrived in Guadeloupe. We’ve slowly taken the time to discover all these islands and the beauty they have to offer. You’ll know that we’re passionate about nature, discovery and walking if you’ve been following our blog for a while. I have to admit that with the arrival of our two children last year, we’ve been diving less and less.

We met a friend here on the island who is a freelance diver. A few months ago we had the opportunity to explore the underwater world off the west coast of Guadeloupe for the first time. More recently, during our stay on the island of Désirade, I had the opportunity to discover the underwater world, which was really nice. If you’re interested, I invite you to read my detailed article on the subject.

We have recently set up a partnership with the Manawa website to help you discover the activities available in Guadeloupe and its islands. This is a serious site that allows you to book your activities all over the world. So we had the opportunity to dive in the Cousteau Reserve, here on the west coast, in partnership with the website and the Heures Saines diving club in Bouillante.

I’d like to tell you all about our dive in this underwater paradise, which is well worth a visit. If you’re looking for some fun things to do while you’re in Guadeloupe, check out our article on microlighting in Saint-François. This lucky lady, Mélanie, had the opportunity to enjoy a magnificent flight over the Pointe des Châteaux, the island of Désirade and the island of Petite-Terre. She has some exceptional memories.

Personally, without the kids at school, we’re taking advantage of a day off to enjoy some quality time together to go diving. How cool is that?

If you’ve enjoyed what we’ve told you and you’d like to try it out, you can book at the end of the article!

Our meeting point at the club was at 9.30am. We left Basse-Terre after dropping the kids off at school and crèche and headed for Bouillante, about a 30 minutes drive from where we live on the west coast. The diving club is really easy to find, you can’t miss it, right next to the Malendure rock with the restaurant above it, which has a pretty good reputation (so you have to try it sometime). There’s plenty of parking when you get there.

I have to admit we were lucky. The weather is gorgeous and the sun is shining on the sea, which is particularly beautiful here. The water is transparent and we have a breathtaking view of the îlets Pigeon (also known as îlets Goyaves) and the famous Cousteau Reserve. We’re diving there this morning. We are ready for a new water adventure. I’ll tell you more about these islands and this magnificent reserve at the end.

Anyway, our first impression is really good. The site is really well located, in a very nice area and reef. We entered the dive center and gradually explored the premises. The building is made of wood and very colorful. The diving club has three levels. When you arrive, you will find the reception on the top level. This is where you can meet other divers and the instructors. It’s a nice little place with a wonderful view of the îlets Pigeon from the terrace. We introduce ourselves and get to know the local people. A very friendly welcome.

At the bottom of the wooden stairs you can collect your wetsuits, masks and fins. Then you go down the stairs to the boat. The boat will take you to the islands. I think the site is really well laid out and it’s very different from more traditional dive centers. You get the feeling that everything has been well thought out.

Anyway, our first impression is really good. The site is really well located, in a very nice area. We entered the diving club and gradually explored the premises. The building is made of wood and very colourful. The club has three levels. When you arrive, the top level is the reception area where you can meet other divers and the instructors. It’s a nice little place with a terrace overlooking the îlets Pigeon. We introduce ourselves and get to know the local people. A very friendly welcome.

At the bottom of the wooden stairs you can collect your wetsuits, masks and fins. Finally, down another flight of stairs you have access to the boat that takes you to the islands. It’s a very well-designed site, I think. It’s very different from more traditional dive centres. You get the feeling that everything is well thought out.

We ended up spending about half an hour diving. The visibility is quite good and the marine life is quite nice. There are a lot of yellow sponges that look really good under water, a few tropical fish (of course), but also a lot of gorgonians that move with the current, which are animals from the phylum of the cnidarians, commonly known as corals. There is very little plant life here, almost exclusively turtle beds and sea pearls. To be honest, we’re having the time of our lives here. We saw the boat for the first dive arrive and decided to turn around and head back to the club to get kitted out for the next dive.

We collected our scuba equipment and settled down on the big boat that had been provided for the dive. The boat, called “Demelou”, is a 12-metre dive boat specially equipped for scuba diving and can accommodate up to 30 divers (but limited to 25 in the Guadeloupe National Park, which includes the sites we’ll be diving). All the diving equipment is already on board, which is very practical. It has to be said that we left everything behind in Polynesia, with the exception of our regulators, which we brought with us but now need to be overhauled. It’s just as well the diving boat is big enough, because there are lots of people aboard and lots of first dives, but these places are famous for good reason!

One of the instructors on the dive boat gives us our briefing. With a level 3 who already knows the area, we’ll be diving independently. Lucky for us, it’ll be a lot easier. During the short crossing (about 15 minutes) we were quietly fitted with our scuba equipment. We wanted to dive at a site called “the Coral Garden”. It is to the east of the two islets on the landward side. When we arrived at the site, the weather was as beautiful as ever and the water was flat and really clear.

We got into the water from the back of the diving boat and the three of us quietly made our way down to the drop off. We started the dive at a depth of about ten metres in very nice water. The visibility isn’t perfect, like in Mayotte, but it’s really good. And between you and me, it varies so much… What’s really nice are the rather large sea fans that move with the underwater currents. As a reminder, there is no touching of the flora and fauna in the national park.

We continue our excursion on a generally sandy seabed where we find the classic flora and fauna of tropical islands: multicoloured sponges (the yellow ones are superb, I think), lots of corals, gorgonians, numerous colourful fish and moving soft corals. Personally, I’m really surprised at how colourful it all is. The conditions are also really good as there is no current and we even have to do a minimum of snorkelling at the risk of almost standing still!

After 10 minutes we reached the drop off. The diving instructor had warned us that unlike other places and dives in Mayotte or French Polynesia, this wasn’t a clear drop-off. However, there is a clear difference in the underwater landscape, with a marked increase in depth as you approach the drop-off. Visibility ‘in the blue’ is also less obvious.

At the drop-off we descend a little to a depth of 25 metres. It’s as beautiful and breathtaking as ever. To be honest, Mélanie and I had a great time during this diving adventure, even though we can’t really talk, but I can see that she’s having fun and that it’s a reminder of her youth, if you can call it that (she’s almost 38 years old…). Mélanie started diving in Mayotte and at that time we made diving experience every weekend. Quite simply, it was our main aquatic activity, a part of our daily life that allowed us to be underwater in this wonderful marine world!

It’s here that we’ll rediscover our senses and the pleasure of the discovery of all these sea beds. We’ll see lots of fish: jacks of all kinds, king mackerels, lots of parrot fish, two moray eels (not huge but great to see, as always), sea urchins of all kinds (the white ones are particularly beautiful), different types of coral.

and, above all, lots of small schools of fish. It’s always difficult to describe what you can see underwater and, to tell the truth, I often say that diving is often a sport of experiences. You have to try, test and experience to really appreciate the beauty of the seabed. Of course it all depends on what you’ve seen before, but overall it’s a really beautiful place.

So we continue ‘right’ along this false drop-off to reach the little island in the corner, ‘the little island’, quite simply, haha. At this point, at the level of Pointe Carangues, we can see a really beautiful cliff on the right. It is a beautiful vertical rocky ledge that corresponds to the rocky facies of the islet. It’s a really beautiful sight. If you look at our air reserves, we’re really quite wide, bearing in mind that we’re sailing in 15 to 20 metres of water, which really limits our air consumption. We decided to continue around the small island. Theoretically, we should have turned back at this point to pass the famous statue of Captain Cousteau on the way back, on a beautiful 12-metre sandy headland. But that’s for another time, another dive trip.

We continued towards the place known as “la piscine” and returned between the two islets. I found it less interesting to watch as the water became shallower. There’s mainly sand here and fewer fish. In fact, you will meet divers who have come here for a snorkelling trip, which the club also offers (more on this later). To get the hang of it and get comfortable in the water, it’s an easy spot. We slowly return to the anchorage after passing between the two islets in less than 2m of water.

The little punch on the way out is always a pleasure. We return quietly, still in good weather! Back at the club, we gave our diving equipment a good rinse and that was the end of it!

In any case, I hope you enjoyed this little dive story and that it has whetted your appetite for diving at the Cousteau reserve. You won’t be disappointed, especially for a first dive! It’s absolutely beautiful! I’m booking my dive!

Immediately after the dive we had lunch at Le Rayon Vert restaurant where we also had a great time. The food was very good and when you eat there you have access to the infinity pool overlooking the sea. What more could you ask for?

I must say I wasn’t sure what to expect when I came here to dive. Everyone had told us that it was really nice, but of course, as I’ve said before, it all depends on what kind of diving you’ve done before. We’ve done a bit of diving in south-east Asia, a lot of diving in Mayotte, Madagascar and off the east coast of Africa, so we’ve been to a lot of nice places.

Having said that, we’ve scuba-dived much less over the last few years since our children arrived. We discussed this with Mélanie and, frankly, we really enjoyed our dive. It was a beautiful deep dive, in very clear water, with a rich and colourful flora and fauna. That’s a very good point for us. The only ‘snag’, not related to the dive trip itself, was the number of people on the diving boat. In our opinion, even though the boat is big, it’s still a lot of people (a lot of scuba divers). But again, it’s probably a matter of personal taste. We were used to diving in more intimate places with a maximum of 4/6 scuba divers on the boat, so it was a change.

To tell you a bit more about the Réserve Cousteau, the reserve is a protected natural marine environment, part of the Guadeloupe National Park. It is located just opposite the famous (and very touristy) beach of Malendure, on the leeward coast of the island of Basse-Terre. It covers about 1,000 hectares of seabed. The name obviously refers to Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who campaigned for the site to be declared a protected area, which it will be from 2009.

There are many diving sites in the Cousteau Reserve. To name but a few: the Coral Garden (where we were), Les Sources / La bouée anticyclonique, La Pointe Carangue, L’Aquarium, La Pointe Barracuda and La Piscine. In short, there’s plenty to do to discover the flora and fauna of this beautiful corner of the Caribbean.

With the diving club where we were, Les Heures Saines, you can also decide to dive at other sites in the reserve, such as the Gustavia wreck, the Franjack wreck, Pointe Malendure, the Jardin Japonais and Anse Negresse. Note that the Caye site where we went snorkelling in the morning is not part of the reserve.

Pointe Mahault and Pointe Lézarde are other famous dive sites in Guadeloupe.

I won’t give you a history of the whole diving club because it’s got a lot of bottles (no pun intended, haha). The Club has been going for almost 40 years now, so let’s get started. I just wanted to say a few words about the club and what it can do. To remind you:

The “Yaïsa”, a 10-metre trawler that was there when the club was founded in 1983,

The “Demelou”, built in 2013, the boat we used during our diving trip,

There’s also a small shop with some souvenirs and diving accessories (always nice!). The club’s T-shirts are particularly nice, for both men and women,

When it comes to activities and training, there’s plenty to choose from. The club offers

• First dives in the Cousteau Reserve,
• Classic exploration dives,
• Snorkelling,
• Night dives,
• Wreck diver,
• Children’s dives,
• Introductory and Advanced Freediving Courses,
• Introductory and advanced marine biology courses,
• And finally, diving courses at all levels (ANMP, FFESSM, SSI).

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced diver, with Les Heures Saines you can discover the underwater world without any worries!

It’s not the purpose of this article to explain everything you can do around the Cousteau Reserve, but you should know that the place is a major tourist attraction (if you can call it that!) and there are plenty of things to do around it. You can hire kayaks and paddle boards from the beach at Malendure. These will take you to the reserve in peace and quiet. It’s also a great way to swim with turtles, although it’s apparently common to see them in the Cousteau Reserve around the islets. If you don’t dive and don’t feel comfortable snorkelling in the water, there’s also a glass-bottomed boat from the same beach. It’s also a great way to introduce a young child/baby to the seabed.

We certainly enjoyed diving with the dive school at the Cousteau Reserve and found the atmosphere very friendly. Even if you’re a beginner at snorkelling and a bit apprehensive, I can assure you that diving is one of the best aquatic activities (watersport) to do in Guadeloupe and you can do dive training step by step. We still haven’t seen all the best diving sites in Guadeloupe, but I’m sure scuba-dive here is a must! We’d definitely recommend it! Thanks to the club for providing us with some underwater photographs!

I’ll stop here. I hope this article has inspired you to dive at the Réserve Cousteau. If you’re on holiday in Guadeloupe, it’s a tourist spot, but well worth a visit. If you’re looking for other places to explore during your stay, I invite you to spend some time at Pointe des Châteaux, in the commune of Saint-François.

I hope to see you soon.

Written by Sylvain PONS

Since 2021, I've been living in the Guadeloupe archipelago with Mélanie and our two children. We are exploring these beautiful islands and discovering the treasures that we are happy to share with you!

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