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Not many nice maps on Google of this small island east of Madagascar. You can dive around the island, but most sources point you towards Isle aux Nattes for the best diving. The island is most famous for humpbackwhale watching from July until September.

Dive Sites:
The South
• Ile Aux Nattes:
La Pagode, an accessible, large coral formation that drops to 12m and allows for an easy dive. You may see rays, lobster, moray eels, turtles, trumpet fish and many coral species. The pagoda coral is a unique feature of this dive.
• The wreck that is situated not far off the coral reef is at 12m. You can easily penetrate the wreckage and the propeller provides some fun photo opportunities. The wreck is home to the bigger wreck dwelling species.
• Shark Pass is an 8m dive that is only done at high tide. Strong current flows along a small canyon and you can see small grey shark, surgeon and parrot fish.
West Coast
La Crique: Coco Bay an easy 25m deep dive down a granite stone slope. This dive has a variety of coral formations as well as orange and pink sea fans, pelagic fish like barracuda and tunnie and the usual coral fish abound like surgeon fish, rock cod and gobies. There is also the chance of encountering a turtles. A special feature of this dive is the black coral.
• The wreck dive is a challenging deep dive to 40m, but the sight of the huge pelagics makes this a very rewarding dive.
• Paroi des Merous drops to 40m is a site for experienced divers only and offers some exciting diving. You can see big groupers called Merou, potato bass, kingfish, barracuda, snapper and the usual coral fish. This is also a good site for nudibranches, porcelain shells and turtles. This dive site often had current and only advanced divers will be allowed to dive here.
The North
• La Cocoteraie:
Anivorano Rocks offers diving on granitic rocks with barracuda to 20m on this dive you may be lucky enough to see the Napoleon Wrasse. The strong current allows for an easy drift dive.
• The wreck of a Reunion cable boat is an easy dive at 15m providing magnificent photo opportunities – stonefish, crocodile fish, lionfish, puffer fish, octopus, lobster and the usual colourful reef fish keep you entranced.
• Cape Alebrand on the island’s North Cape, has a sandy sea bottom with granite rocks it drops to 20m. It is a beautiful dive, and there is the opportunity to see grey shark, black tip sharks, rays and barracuda as well as eagle rays.
The East
• Ile Aux Sable: This is a sandy islet off the east coast which has 3 good diving spots that range from 15 – 25 metres. The fish species that can be seen are: little black and white tip shark, groupers, lobster, kingfish, tuna, stingrays, pipefish and traveller fish. Turtles are also often sighted here and the coral gardens abound with the usual coral fish.
• Ile Aux Baleines (Island of the Whales): The same type of diving as at Ile Aux Sable, but a lot wilder and unexplored.
Humpback whales migrate past the island from July to October.

I picked another hot, humid day to go out and try to catch a colorful sunset again, and this one worked out a lot better than the last attempt! I took my camera and tripod out to 100 Acres: the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and set up at my favorite spot on the eastern edge of the lake about a half an hour before sunset. I watched the fish coming to the surface to make ripples, and the martens diving for bugs, and I even held very still while a couple of great blue herons squawked at me for invading their space. There was no breeze, so it was hot and sweaty, but it was peaceful -- 100 Acres always takes me a million miles away from my stress.

I was hoping for that perfect combination of clouds and color that turns the sky into a blaze of colors, but something was amiss, so I ended up with a very uniform was of pink and orange instead. I was a little bummed at first, but the more I look at this photo, the more I like it. It's warm and peaceful, and it was a nice start to the Labor Day holiday weekend. And then the mosquitoes decided that they were not impressed by my insect repellant after all, and they tried to gnaw off my left arm. I had to give up and head back to the car before it got completely dark, so I don't know what happened to the colors after this, but at least I got this far.

After all, the sun sets every single day, so there will always be another chance to try again! It was 99 degrees on Friday (the evening this shot was taken), then 100 degrees on Saturday, but now the weather has broken, and it was only in the high 60s today. *whew* I associate the most colorful sidewalks with hot and humid days, but I'll have to keep my eyes open now that it's cooler, too.

This photo is borderline impressive on black.