Snorkeling Le Trou de David
We’d visited Le Trou de David (David’s Hole) before, but after glowing reports from Robin and Aure, we knew we had to snorkel it. Located between Baie Rouge and Pointe du Bluff, it is a large natural hole inside a cliff with a pair of arches leading to the sea.
We entered the water in the shallow and dangerously urchin-rich rocks beside the hole. In the protected waters near the shore, there were thousands of schooling silversides. Swimming inside Le Trou de David is an interesting novelty, but the true treasures are just outside the hole. In addition to the two arches that pass through Le Trou de David, there are submerged and semi-submerged caves in the side of the cliff. There are an abundance of large rock formations extending out from the cliff which are full of canyons and overhangs which hosted schools of blue tang and a small hawksbill turtle.
The reef area is fairly large, wrapping around the cliff to where you can see the beach on Baie Rouge. It extends out at least a few hundred feet in most of the area, where it transitions to a sandy bottom at about 25 feet deep. Although I keep saying it, this may actually be the best snorkeling area on Saint Martin proper. It could also be a lovely dive site. As we returned to shore, I saw a large spotted seahare in only a few inches of water, an excellent end to the exploration.
