Ilha Deserta Grande

We left early in the morning heading for the deserted island. We had to have permission before we were able to enter the marine reserve, and that was quite some kerfuffle. Permission was granted midway through our passage thankfully!

It was worth the hassle.

You can see the anchor in 10m of beautiful clear water.

And this is were we anchored, at the foot of the cliff face.

Richard looking for the shearwater birds. It turned out that they leave for the day, go fishing and return at 10pm. And they did.

The island is part of the Desertas Islands nature reserve with a warden’s base midway along the western coast.

South of the base, no approach to the island closer than 100 m is permitted in order to protect the critically endangered Mediterranean Monk seal breeding population. We learnt that, after we took the dinghy into the cave and the wardens came over in their souped up dinghy. When we pointed out that there were no fish, no seals and no birds, and we wondered what they were protecting, they shrugged their shoulders.

Not sure if we were allowed to snorkel, but we did!