Scandola Nature Reserve

The red volcanic cliffs drop straight into water so clear that the seabed shows metres down, fish moving through the blue like slow shadows. The Scandola reserve sits on the west coast of Corsica, France, and can only be reached by sea — a protected headland where ospreys nest on the sea stacks and the geology is a catalogue of volcanic violence in red, orange and black.

Scandola is the volcanic peninsula at the northern end of the Gulf of Porto, World Heritage since 1983 for both its nature and its landscape, and no road goes in: the boats from Porto, Galéria and Calvi are the only way, and the crossing itself — along cliffs of red rock, past sea caves and stacks and columns of cooled lava — is the visit. Ospreys nest on the stacks at one of their last Mediterranean strongholds, and the reserve keeps boats back from the active nests; under the surface, protection has brought the grouper back. There is nowhere to land inside the reserve, which is the whole idea: this is the west coast as it was before anyone built on it, and the crystal-clear waters and raw landscapes are held for the people who come after.