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The D37 south of Anse-a-l'Ane skirts Grande Anse, a gorgeous harbour packed with colourful fishing boats, followed by Anse d'Arlets and Petit Anse, both quiet seaside villages with their own agreeable sandy stretches, before climbing 477-metre Morne Larcher, southern Martinique's highest point. The road here can get pretty tight, with a number of hairpin turns, but it's worth the grinding gear-shifting to reach the south side, where the road plunges down to the sea and the rocky outcropping known as Rocher du Diamant leaps into view. This volcanic islet 3km off the coast of Martinique is popular with scuba divers, as its depths are loaded with violet coral, multicoloured sponges and finely carved grottoes. Above sea level, its surface commands attention for its bizarre history. In 1804, the British claimed the rough-cut-diamond outcropping as a battleship, the HMS Diamond Rock, and established unsinkable barracks on her cliffs. After using it to fend off French vessels for seventeen months, the British were outsmarted by the French, who sent over a rum-loaded ship - the isolated mariners drank the hooch, weakening their defences, and enabling the French to recapture the island. The town of DIAMANT itself, which lies a few kilometres east of the eponymous Rocher, is a picturesque place, with pretty blue and coral houses overlooking a fine bay bounded to the east by the cloistered Pointe de la Cherry. The four-kilometre beach here is one of Martinique's nicest, but the swell can be rough; even so, it's still worth checking out for the awesome vista of the Rocher huddled below Morne Larcher.
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