Bassas Da India is a tiny coral atoll situated in the Mozambique channel about 50 miles to the north of Europa Islands and is French. This atoll is only visible once the tide is out and therefore is littered with wrecks. This great sunken volcano, encrusted with corals and wrecks of numberous ships is a pristine haven for marine life. Some of these are centuries old like the Santiago that went down in 1585, and some are more recent.

"The Bas" is infrequently visited and then only by ocean going yachts or motorized vessels. The reefs consist of the slopes and 100mt wide rim of the submerged volcano, which has a diameter of around 11km. This rim protrudes a metre above the water at spring low tide and encloses a lagoon that is 15m at its deepest points. At high tide the flat boulder strewn reeftop disappears beneath the waves. The real excitement of exploring Bassas lies in the breathtaking wall dives. Gliding down over the gently sloping reef you pass over giant table corals at 15m, before reaching the edge of the drop off at around 20m. Apprehension and delight abound as the 40m drop over the wall reveals schools of kingfish and rainbow runners which occupy the deep blue with the occasional solitary yellow-fin tunny.

Silver tip sharks often circle the boats and hammerheads can often be seen swimming by. At around 60m the wall disappears and is actually undercut. The wall dives can be completed in shallower water as en route to the surface coral outcrops spread across the sandy bottom wait to be explored in about 9m of water. At these depths large schools of parrotfish, fusiliers, anthias and loads of solitary groupers, moray eels, wrasse, butterflyfish and angelfish await. Bassas is a difficult dive location to get to and must be one of the Indian Oceans wildest and most beautiful dive sites.